Inferno
by KobeNiku
Summary: Marisa, Reimu and Sanae have come down to the Underground to witness the grand opening of Former Hell's new power plant. However, when demons from another dimension emerge from the facility, will they be able to contain them before the reach the surface? What will they find as they enter the facility?
1. The Announcement

" **THREE MORE MISSING IN OLD HELL! CULT ACTIVITY SUSPECTED"**

" **LADY SATORI TO ANNOUNCE OPENING OF NEW ENERGY PLANT TODAY"**

"Wow, that's the fifth kidnapping case this year!" said Nitori Kawashiro to no one in particular. The green jumpsuit-wearing kappa had just finished final inspections of the Earth Spirits Energy Plant control room before she sat on a sofa in the engineering lounge with a copy of the latest Bunbunmaru Newspaper in one hand and a cup of her very own cucumber coffee in the other. She felt lonely figuratively and literally as none of her colleagues were present in the spacious confines of the lounge. Nitori let out a sigh as her bright eyes slowly scanned the room for any sign of life only to find none.

Not that she blamed them for ditching her.

Earlier this morning, Orin announced through the PA system that all employees of the Earth Spirits Energy Plant were allowed to leave work by noon to help with preparations of the grand opening of Former Hell Solutions' new energy plant. However, before she even had the time to cheer the announcement added that it did not apply to heads of department as they are required to inspect each section of their respective sectors thoroughly before leaving. As chief supervisor and custodian engineer of I&E in the plant as well as being the lead researcher that discovered the new source of energy that runs it meant that she had a lot of inspecting to do. A lot.

"Well, at least they're having fun I suppose." she thought to herself. Sipping the last of her cucumber coffee she unlatched her modified Former Hell Solutions (FHS) safety helmet and put it on the table with soft metallic thud, letting her bobbed twin-tails free from her helmet's stuffiness. Nitori tried to stifle a yawn fruitlessly before looking at the newspaper's second headline. With a tired shrug she mumbled, "I guess I can finally start work officially tomorrow."

"I believe you mean tonight." corrected a voice from behind.

"Wait wha-?!" Nitori quickly turned around in alarm but was not fast enough to identify the person behind her before she instantly blacked out as she felt a hard whack to her head.

* * *

"…and that's how Nitori got kidnapped!" said an excited Marisa, her smile beaming towards her small audience of two.

"Oh come on." said a clearly uninterested Reimu dejectedly. "You pretty much just took the headlines from yesterday's paper and mashed it together with that one kappa's recollection of her last known location."

"As much as I would love to believe your story, Marisa, I'd have to agree with Reimu on this one." added Sanae, her face an expression of deep thought with her arms crossed. "It just seems too far-fetched."

Marisa scratched her head in slight embarrassment. She had to admit; her story _was_ a bit much for them to buy into it. To be honest, she genuinely wanted to find out more about her friend's disappearance ever since she read about it yesterday. Why else would she be here in the Underground? She had been thinking about multiple scenarios that might shed light into the matter and frankly most of them sounded intriguing. She did contemplate snooping around for answers but, with Reimu and Sanae in tow, she just felt the urge to share her wonderful theory with them. Maybe if she described it in a more detective-esque manner…

"Oi, Earth to Marisa," said Reimu as she snapped her fingers in front of Marisa's face. "The speech is starting."

Marisa immediately snapped out of her reverie and looked straight up towards the large television screen on that was hung on the ceiling towards their right. They gathered together in Kisume's bar, the Falling Keg, to watch the grand opening of the new power plant live on camera since neither of them owned a television for various reasons (Reimu was too poor, Marisa's house was too isolated in the Forest of Magic for a signal, Sanae did not know Gensokyo even had televisions). It was also due to the fact that it was the only place in the Underground that had a television that wasn't a fancy establishment or someone else's home. It also had the added bonus of a beautiful view of the Underground at night, every landmark visible. Bright lights decorated the Palace of the Earth Spirits, the cityscape complimenting it nicely. The one that stood out most, however, was the blue column of energy that beamed upwards towards the Underground's entrance and beyond. Everyone knew that strange blue energy column came from the new power plant that became operational the day before.

The bar became silent as the FHS logo appeared on the screen before fading away to reveal a sharply dressed Parsee standing behind a podium as camera flashes pepper the stage. Her light green eyes calmly glare at the audience as the commotion finally began to simmer down.

"Good evening everyone," the company spokesperson began, her eyes never blinking. "My name is Mizuhashi Parsee and I stand before you tonight to commemorate the grand opening of Former Hell Solutions' new power plant. But first, a few words from our CEO, Lady Satori."

Then, a flustered bespectacled assistant was seen emerging from backstage and whispered something into Parsee's ear before retreating backstage again.

"Sorry for the interruption. It appears that Lady Satori is unable to join us this evening due to urgent matters." There was a vocal moan of disappointment from the audience on-screen and in the bar. The last time anyone had ever heard from Satori was over a decade ago and that was when she first announced the construction of the power plant.

"Anyways," she continued, "We have come a long way since our humble beginnings as Gensokyo's first low-cost provider of electricity 15 years ago. The idea of providing energy throughout Gensokyo came about when Lady Satori saw that our nuclear reactor, maintained tirelessly by Okuu, was producing far more than we needed. Needless to say, the rest was history. Her noble intentions paved the way for technological progress that brought Gensokyo to what it is today. The Human Village with its dainty houses has now expanded into a bustling metropolis, skyscrapers towering high and rife with trade. Yagokoro Clinic grew into a pharmaceutical giant thanks to the sudden boom in economic activity courtesy of our company's contribution to society. Although the improvements were brought about on their own, we helped in providing the spark it needed to grow either by supplying electricity or offering jobs at our fine establishment."

"Gee, sure helped us shrine maidens with reducing the number of shrine-goers we get" said Reimu sarcastically as Parsee paused for a drink of water, her left eye twitching in slight annoyance.

"Come on now, Reimu," said Sanae calmly. "It's not like it is doom and gloom for the shrines, right? I mean, Wi-Fi is free for all and everyone is given smartphones."

"Yeah, yeah whatever."

"Shut up you two, she's about to continue." snapped Marisa as her eyes were glued to the screen before them.

"As I was saying," she started, her tone flat as ever. "We have come a long way as a company and have enabled Gensokyo to prosper alongside the Underground. Which brings us to here today with the new power plant we're in. Before this, we have relied on nuclear energy. It is clean and efficient and in constant supply thanks to our resident hell raven, Okuu. However, the residue is harmful and difficult to dispose and poor Okuu will not live forever no matter how long her lifespan is. Thus, we needed a cleaner, safer solution: Hell Energy." The audience gasped in shock at this revelation. "Before you start, we have taken drastic measures to ensure the incident from 20 years back does not repeat itself. It was a time before the company was founded and we have improved greatly since. With the help of Ms. Kawashiro Nitori, extraction of Hell Energy is now safer than ever."

Deep in thought, Marisa's face stiffened as she processed this new bit of information on her friend. She knew that Nitori had taken up the job offer and that she would be working on FHS' new 'energy solution' about a year ago. Something about refining her 'ground-breaking discovery'. Now, the dots began to connect. Ever since the Lunatic Kingdom incident, Gensokyo got hold of knowledge that multiple Hells existed due to Hecatia's involvement in the event. It would be a no-brainer that FHS would locate the Hell of which the infamous Hell Energy originated and then extract it with Nitori's help. If there was anything that she knew about messing around with dubious items is that it is better off not to.

* * *

Sanae perked up when she heard the term "Hell Energy". From what she heard from Kanako when they first moved to Gensokyo, it was discovered by accident when one of Satori's pets stumbled upon an ancient relic in Former Hell hence the name given. This then triggered a series of events that lead to the bloody incident two decades ago. Later, after her encounter with the Hell Goddess, she heard from the tengu that Former Hell Solutions had formed a partnership with the kappa to develop inter-dimensional portals and energy purification filters.

The very idea of it sounded ridiculous to her but Sanae had to remind herself that common sense is a rarity in Gensokyo. Still, this 'Hell Energy' seemed like the perfect energy resource needed to solve the Outside World's energy crisis with its zero emissions and renewable properties. With such an energy source, global warming would be a thing of the past and space travel could finally be made affordable to the public. Her face lit up at this thought. If she could somehow bring this wonderful energy over to the Outside where she initially lived, she just might be able to fulfill her childhood wish of flying to the moon. Normally. In a spaceship.

* * *

The mention of Hell Energy suddenly got Reimu to raise an eyebrow. She heard of it twenty years ago back when she was five. Her memory of it was hazy but she knew that it was the cause of a great catastrophe that led to the deaths of thousands, human and youkai. Judging from the sudden looks of shock and anger among the bar patrons and the gasps heard on the television, no one forgot either. What she did know for sure, it was that this massive incident was responsible for her mother's disappearance. Her intuition was also acting up, causing her to feel jumpy as if a threat would spring out at any moment. Something was about to go down. And it definitely won't be pretty.

She made a quick glance towards her friends to see how they reacted to it. Marisa seemed to share the same concern as she saw her face harden momentarily before relaxing again.

Sanae, on the other hand, looked rather interested in it based on her sparkling eyes and small girly grin. Her reaction made sense to the Hakurei shrine maiden as the Moriya shrine pretty much popped into existence when she was in her teens, about ten years after the incident.

Suddenly, she saw both her friends' eyes widen in shock alongside the screams of the bar patrons. She quickly turned towards the TV and saw that Parsee now had a machete impaled through her chest from behind, her mouth wide open in a silent scream. Then, the machete was swiftly pulled out the same way it came in resulting in a hole in her chest that looked like a twisted imitation of Yukari's gaps. What shocked her, however, was the wielder of the machete: Wearing a bloodied lab coat, her signature twin braided red twin-tails made it known that it was none other than the co-founder of FHS, Orin. Marisa's story didn't seem too far-fetched now.


	2. Gathering

The sage youkai looked on grimly as the crazed woman on her television set rambled on about bringing about "True Hell". Yukari, in her many years of living, had never been vexed much, let alone disturbed. She was pretty content in taking up the unofficial role of vexing Gensokyo's denizens, mostly the Hakurei (which she made sure to do so on a weekly basis). Tonight however, she was evidently deeply irritated and shaken by the event unfolding before her very eyes.

How dare this mere pet of that satori threaten the (arguably) peaceful livelihood of this world that she created! However, she was also admittedly a bit disturbed by what she saw of poor Parsee several minutes ago. It was bad enough that she already had a gaping hole in her chest. Then, Orin brought out a glowing orange glass orb and shoved it into her chest cavity, releasing the energy stored within as the orb shattered upon being lodged forcefully inside.

This gruesome act did little to get a reaction from the gap youkai. She had seen worse before done by both human and youkai, herself included. What happened afterwards did. Yukari cringed a little at the thought. No one, human or youkai, deserved to have _that_ kind of treatment. However, and this was something that could _never_ be outdone by anyone else, this horrifying act was nothing compared to the horror she felt when the previous Hakurei miko _tore_ open her closed gap to tear her a new one after she was caught spying on her changing her clothes (something she was glad the current one could never do. Yet.)

Remembering that Reimu was in the Underground at this very moment, she quickly sent a text message to her. She smiled a little. In order to warn her of the dangers the company is about to bring, she had to use one of the countless blessings that the company had to offer. She then smiled even wider when she remembered that she bought her smartphone herself and, was thus, absolved of any feeling of gratitude towards the energy mega-corporation. She let herself do a little fist pump, her smile now beaming widely with an air of pride; no one held the great youkai, Yakumo Yukari down (except for the previous Hakurei shrine maiden- she was something else entirely).

Then, she heard a loud deep rumble. Yukari took a look outside. She then immediately summoned for Ran's presence. The column of energy that was usually a light calm blue momentarily turned an eerily familiar shade of fire-red when the rumble was heard followed by bright pulses of orange before slowly shifting back to blue. She had seen that phenomenon before except the energy had always been red. She went straight for the Underground's entrance via her ever-convenient gaps with Ran in tow (and with her, Chen). She was going to seal off the Underground with a powerful barrier and she needed all the help she could muster: she was not going to let history repeat itself. Never again.

She could only hope that Reimu received her message on time and get out of there safely with her companions because, judging by the high level containment barrier she was about place, only **_she_** would be powerful enough to rip through it.

* * *

The red Higan flowers were in full bloom in the fields of Muenzuka. There were also flowers of other kinds that grew in between the red poisonous flowers, an unusual sight but it was a refreshing one regardless. The river Sanzu was as misty as ever, obscuring most of the view beyond apart from the riverbank and the flower fields. There was not a soul to be seen save for the resting figure of the only ferryman in the area. And this irked Shikieiki to no end. With her Rod of Judgement at the ready, she slowly walked towards the sleeping woman. Once she was looming over her, she cleared her throat her throat loudly. _No response._ She cleared her throat again, this time coughing due to overdoing it.

A cherry blossom petal fluttered lightly past her face. _Still sleeping._

She poked Komachi's cheek with her rod. Komachi simply rolled over.

She sighed. That was it. She had had enough. If the slacker was not going to wake up the conventional way, she was going to wake her the hard way.

Taking a step back, she assumed a fighting stance, legs bent slightly and arms out front. Then, she tightened her grip on the Rod of Remorse. Inhale. Exhale. Pulling her right arm as far back as possible, she took aim at the offender's well-endowed chest, rising and falling calmly as she slept. Her eyes narrowed, her target well within range. Flipping her weapon to its broad side, she swung the Rod of Remorse with lightning speed, the resulting smack a fitting thunder.

"Kyaowowowow!" awoke Komachi with a jump, her arms immediately caressing her sore smacked breast. Her eyes were welling up with tears as she tried to hold back the pain. Then, she took a deep breath, reached for her oversized scythe and began frantically looking around, with Shikieiki managing to step casually out of her peripheral view every time she so much as turned her head. "Who dares to disturb the ferryman's slumber!" she yelled angrily, her voice squeaking mid-sentence.

"So, not only do you sleep on the job but you also have the _nerve_ to speak in such a manner towards your employer?" asked Shikieiki icily from behind her. "Maybe I should have fired you all those years ago. I simply cannot let such insubordinance slide"

"Uweh?!" yelped a startled Komachi with a small jump. She quickly spun around to face her angry boss and grovelled at her feet. "I'm so sorry! Please don't fire me! It won't happen again, I swear!"

"That's what you said the last four hundred and seventy-two times I've caught you sleeping."

"I know but I have a really solid reason for sleeping this time so please listen to what I have to say please?" she pleaded.

Shikieiki sighed. Yesterday when Komachi claimed to have a 'solid' reason, it turned out she had passed out in a drinking match with one of the three Devas. However, she was feeling rather lenient today so she decided to hear her out.

"Well…" she started, her eyes shifting between staring at the ground and towards her employer's eyes. "All the souls just refused to cross the river today, Eiki." She scratched her head as she grinned hesitantly.

"Oh, is that so?" questioned the Yama, intrigued by this fresh excuse her subordinate had cooked up. "Do, pray tell, enlighten me as to where these stubborn souls are at this very moment?" she added as she lightly lifted Komachi's chin with the pointed end of her rod.

"They went into the ground and became flowers." she stammered.

Silence. Shikieiki watched as the ferryman started to fidget as she looked towards the ground. Then back to her. Then back to the ground. Then back to her. Beads of cold sweat were beginning to form on Komachi's forehead. Her smile wavered. She was about to cry.

With a sigh, Shikieiki put her Rod of Remorse back into its holster on her hip and gently put her hand on Komachi's head. "For once, I believe you," she lightly told her as she patted her head softly. Then, with a small smile, she said, "Thanks."

In actuality, she already knew about the souls. She just wanted to know if her subordinate slept because of their refusal to pass on or just out of plain laziness.

"Oh my god thank you thank you so much for letting keep my job Eiki!" cried Komachi in excited relief as Shikieiki felt herself being pulled into a titanium bear hug. "I was so worried about how I was going to go about my life jobless and raise a family alone and be lonely and scared and friendless!" she exclaimed in an ecstatic flurry.

Shikieiki barely heard even half of that statement. She was too busy attempting to avoid death by mammary asphyxiation. She wriggled about as hard as a completely restrained woman could in order to get out. But alas, the shinigami's grip was too tight…

 _Damn you, Komachi and your ridiculously huge breasts!_ _Did they grow_ _ **bigger**_ _over the past couple of months or something you damned fool?! I will not die such a humiliating death!_

Luckily, death was a long way away for the Judge of Paradise as Komachi finally let her go, allowing her to breathe. Composing herself shortly afterwards, she gave Komachi a short scolding for almost accidentally killing her boss before reminding her that she was not a demon and that she would not fire anyone for truth-telling. Only failure to comply with the weekly quota would merit that. That would be a sign of lack of responsibility. Something that, thankfully, the Shinigami standing before had enough of.

"Come now, Komachi," she commanded as she plucked out a white lily from a nearby Higan patch. "We've got flowers to interrogate."

"Eh?" blurted Komachi, her head tilted sideways looking very confused.

 _Urgh…_ moaned Shikieiki internally. _She even talks to them on a daily basis, for heaven's sake!_ "It means we have to question the souls that have become these odd flowers, idiot."

Bringing the lily in her hand in front of her, she recited a few incantations, allowing the soul hovering around the flower to merge with it and enable speech.

"Hi there!" greeted the lily. "Who are you, green-haired miss?" it questioned expectantly.

Realising that this was the soul of a child, she decided to introduce herself without informing it of her title and occupation. "My name is Shikieiki, child. If you like, you can call me Miss Eiki."

"That name sounds beautiful, miss!" exclaimed the flower. It then turned its head around as if searching for something.

"Miss Eiki?" it then asked.

"Yes?"

"Where am I? Why are there so many flowers here? And why is that Shinigami in front of you not scary?"

"Hey!" cried Komachi in mock anger. "I'm plenty terrifying as I am, y'know?" She then let out a hearty laugh while twirling her scythe around. Next, she tossed it into the air and caught it in mid-air as it fell the same way a certain King of Pop caught his hat.

"That's so cool!" exclaimed the lily as it looked on in awe.

Shikieiki chuckled softly. The innocence of the young never ceased to amuse her. The sight of her subordinate playing along with it brought a smile to her face. As lazy as she was, she was a natural with children. _Komachi would be an excellent mother to her children,_ thought Shikieiki with small smile. She then made a mental note to make sure that she would be the godmother of Komachi's children, should she ever have any in the future. It would mean the world to her to be able to be part of the joys and wonders that her job would never allow her to experience.

"How old are you, young one?" she asked the lily in a motherly manner.

"Five!" it shouted happily. "That beautiful Shinigami-looking lady was so awesome, miss!" it then added, prompting an embarrassed snicker from Komachi. "A few months ago," the flower continued, "My mommy took me to the Hakurei festival in the village. The miko there was cool like Miss Komachi too!"

This raised an eyebrow on both women. Shikieiki was puzzled. _That is strange,_ she pondered. _The Hakurei shrine maiden never held the festival in the village. She could only afford to have it by her shrine. The last time the festival ever took place in the Human Village was when…!_ Her eyes widened as she came to a realisation. She gulped. There was only one way to find out…

"What did the miko do that could match Miss Komachi's level of awesome?"

The lily perked up. If it had a face, it would probably be beaming judging by the way the flower looked up at her.

"She was crazy strong, miss! She had like ten stone walls lined up in front of her. Then, she punched through _all_ of them in one punch even though the walls had a wide gap between them!"

Upon hearing this, Shikieiki's suspicions were confirmed. Still, she had to know one last detail that could pin-point the period of when the soul was alive. "Do you know where your parents are?"

The lily trembled at the mention of its parents. It began to sniffle as it appeared to cry. "Mom and Dad…" It paused, its voiced strained holding back the tears seen only by itself. "They were carrying me while running away. Everything was burning. Mommy looked scared. Daddy he fell. And then…and then…*sniff*…they-"

"Say no more, child." The Judge of Paradise lightly patted the white lily. "It's okay, you don't have to continue." she assured. Unable to hold back any longer, the flower wailed loudly. She held the flower closely to her bosom, calming the poor child. As she did so, she brought out her hand mirror, looking into the child's final memories. The mirror was only meant to be used for judging but it was her only option for uncovering the final piece without upsetting the child any further.

* * *

 _"_ _Get her out of here!" yelled the little girl's father as he looked for his machete. "Don't worry about me, just go!"_

 _The girl then felt herself being carried by her mother, who slung her over her back as she ran out of the house. Everything outside was ablaze in flames. The houses. The shops. The people as well…_

 _She was scared. There were scary monsters chasing her neighbours. Her friends were screaming, crying out for their mamas. But her mother kept running. Then, she saw her father emerge from their burning house, running towards them. Suddenly she felt joy. Her father was coming for them! Everything would be okay again!_

 _However, her joy was short-lived. Her mother tripped on something and fell, throwing her off in the process. She tried to get up but she couldn't. Her mother fell on top of her and her legs were bleeding. She then looked up to see that her father had fallen down as well. Then, she looked on in horror as the monsters began approaching them, reaching her father first._

 _She wanted to cry. She wanted them to stop. But she could only watch as her father flailed around swinging his machete wildly as a huge goat-headed monster lifted him by his head. The monster then let out a terrible roar and crushed his head in a sickening crunch, his blood and brains splattering the monster's body. "DAD! NO!"_

 _Then, she felt herself being dragged away quickly. In her shock, she did not notice her mother get up and grab her by her arm. They were running again. She saw her mother's face. It was in tears and she looked scared but she also looked serious as well. Suddenly, her mother's face was gone. In its place, a gaping charred hole. She then fell down, crying out in pain. She tried to get up again but she couldn't feel her legs. She glanced back; her legs were a good few metres away from her, cleanly burnt off. The last thing she saw shortly after was a ball of fire flying straight towards her face…_

* * *

She snapped her hand mirror shut, her expression dark with rage. Sensing the flower's fear, she put up a small smile. She did not want the little girl to be afraid by her presence.

"Why didn't you follow Miss Komachi on the boat ride?", she asked, now that the girl had calmed down enough.

"The others told me the monsters were coming back and that if I stayed here with this flower, they can't eat me." she replied shyly.

"I see," said Shikieiki as she replanted the flower. "Thank you, child." She then gave the flower a light pat. No further questions were needed. It was time to return to Ground Zero. She would see to it that justice was served. "Komachi!" commanded the Judge. "Change gear and follow me to the Underground."

"Hmm? What for?" she quizzed.

"Some instant sentencing is due." She corrected her hat sharply. _And there will be hell to pay…_

* * *

 ** _The demons… They are brutal, rage and without mercy…_**

"Uwah?!" yelped Reimu as she jolted awake. _What happened here?_ The bar around her was in ruins. The tables broken, the chairs smashed and the walls riddled with holes of various different shapes and sizes. Through one of the large holes in the wall, she could see that the Underground was now up in flames. She looked around the ruined bar and found that it was now empty save for the passed out Marisa and Sanae that were lying on the floor, covered in dust and some light rubble. The last thing that she remembered was that the T.V was abruptly shut off shortly after Parsee's impalement by a series of short but powerful tremors that shook the bar violently. The lights blew out and then she was knocked out cold by a blow to the head, presumably from falling chunks of debris during the tremors.

 _More importantly,_ she wondered. _What was that voice from before? Sounding all ominous and cryptic._ She was a bit disturbed when she heard the voice that awoke her. It was heavy with grave implications. Deathly implications. It was also due to the fact that the only people in the bar with her were out like a light and that there was a major incident unfolding right now, with the burning Underground and all that. She then looked around for her _gohei_ ; can't work without it, after all.

However, to her confusion and dismay, she found it on her left snapped in two beside a futuristic-looking pistol with a note taped to it. Picking the weapon up, she took off the note to read it:

 **Danmaku does not work on them. Use this.**

The hand-writing appeared to be hastily scrawled. _Someone must've been here recently and took off._ She then held the odd weapon in her left hand. It was unsurprisingly a bit heavy but felt, strangely enough, comfortable and natural to handle. It was almost as if she had used this before…

Looking over to where her friends were, she saw that they too had the same weapon beside them. Each with the same hastily written note.

" _Urghhh…",_ she heard Marisa groan, slowly getting up and shrugging off the debris on her clothing.

Sanae, on the other hand, appeared to be sleeping rather than passed out. She saw that she was grinning goofily. Then, she heard a loud shriek coming from the outside of the bar.

"Shut up, you stupid alarm clock~", replied a sleepy Sanae as she groggily got up. Then, the shriek was heard again, this time closer and followed sounds of crunching footsteps.

Sensing the danger posed by the approaching creature, Reimu shoved the guns into Sanae and Marisa's hands and immediately dragged them behind the bar counter, the only intact object in the premise.

She was not sure how she was going to deal with the situation, especially with her intuition constantly acting up. She checked up on her friends who were crouched down with her. Marisa was alert and baffled; she looked cautious but also confused as to why she gave her a gun. Taped with a note. Sanae, now fully awake, was panicking; she presumed that people from the Outside were more familiar with gun usage. Apparently she was wrong.

But there was one thing that Reimu was sure of that was shared between them: _Get out alive._


	3. Barred Escape

_Breathe in._

 _Breathe out._

 _Breathe in._

 _Breathe out._

Sanae was doing her best to calm herself down. She woke under a pile of rubble, then was dragged off by Reimu hurriedly behind the bar counter, had a gun literally handed to her and something was about to enter the bar. That something was also out for their blood for whatever reason.

She chanced a peek over the counter to look at the intruder that Reimu had to hide them from. Slowly, she raised her head until her eyes were at least able to get a full view of the bar. There was no doubt that the bar was in ruins; the strewn-about chairs and tables were indication enough. She darted her eyes towards the entrance. The intruder was coming through there but the corridor walls that led into the bar prevented her from seeing the threat.

Marisa, following Sanae's example, peeked as well. She had her mini-Hakkero in her hand just in case things got sour. Reimu, on the other hand, remained crouched behind the counter.

 _"_ _Keep your heads down, you morons!",_ scolded Reimu harshly in the softest voice she could possibly manage while angry. " _You're going to get us killed like that!"_

" _Come on, Reimu~",_ drawled Marisa. " _We're just curious to see this mysterious threat of yours that's got you all worked up, ze! Besides, maybe the earthquake might have gotten you all worked for nothing for all you know, right Sanae?"_

 _"_ _Uh…umm…yeah. That's… uh, right…"_

 _"_ _Marisa, earthquakes aren't known for causing hallucinations.",_ replied a deadpan Reimu.

" _Well…you never know with these things, Rei-chan~",_ teased the witch. _"Maybe the intruder is a spooooky scary demon and he's gonna rip ya to shreds~"_

"… _I hope not."_

As if on cue, the intruder creeped out into view, lightly stomping as it moved. The three of them held their breath as it stalked the bar.

It appeared to be an imp as it had the tell-tale slender build of an imp and it had the characteristic long narrow eyes of one. However, they also noted that it was not exactly an imp either. Instead of sharp, pointed ears, it had earholes. Rather than being green-skinned and clothed, it was completely bare and blood-red all over. Its eyes were also different as well as the typical imp's eyes had irises. The intruder had none and both eyes were a shining sickly yellow. Filled with bloodlust. Teeth jagged and serrated.

The peeking duo nearly jumped out of their skin when the imp-like intruder suddenly screeched and tossed a ball of fire at one of the tables lying about.

A cockroach had flown past the imp and landed on the table unawares, which prompted the imp's sudden burst of violence. The table was left a pile of ashes. The cockroach crawled out of the ashes unscathed.

oOo

As Marisa and Sanae were affixed at the creature, Reimu scouted around the side of the counter looking for an escape route. Her eyes darted around decisively, scanning the bar for any silent means of exit without alerting the intruder within. It was a daunting task considering the scattered beer bottle shards and rubble all over the floor.

She had contemplated attacking the creature head on. But then she remembered the note.

 _'_ _Is it true?',_ she pondered. She felt her gun in her pocket. While danmaku was never a fatal means of engaging in combat, she reckoned that it still would hurt enough to beat anyone into submission. She would know; it was what she did for a living. Even if she could, however, she wouldn't. She created the Spell Card Rules to stop the brutal ways of youkai extermination practiced by the Hakurei before her. Her mother included.

 _'_ _Anyway,'_ , she interrupted herself, ' _I think that sticking to the walls could get us out of here.'_ She had mapped out the path in her head: They would first crawl quietly towards the wall that connected to the corridor, carefully pushing away any debris that could give away their position. Then, upon reaching said wall, they would stand up with their backs to it and quietly shimmy their way towards the corridor and hoof it. She grinned. Her plan was fool-proof. There was no way they could fail.

But there was one problem: The imp was facing their general direction. And it was slowly coming their way.

Without thinking, she grabbed the first small object she saw and flung it across the room towards the scattered tables before retreating back behind the safety of the bar counter.

A few seconds passed.

Then, she heard a loud screech. A small explosion followed. She carefully poked her head out to see what the imp was doing…

oOo

It stood there staring at the freshly decimated table it had just made. It had no clue as what zipped past its eyes. Whatever it was, it startled it enough to throw a fireball by reflex.

The pile of ash shook a bit. The imp remained still, its hand ready to throw another fireball to kill off anything that pops out of that pile. It already had its fill of anxious prowling and fearful hiding when the Slayer tore through Hell. Suffice to say, it was not going to be taking any chances in this new Hell.

It cared for life to dearly to part with it just yet. The lives of its comrades could all burn for all it cared.

The Gore Nest it came out of was placed on the outskirts of Old Hell, which meant that there wasn't much left to be killed nor was there many to begin with. Its comrades, a fellow imp and several Unwilling, roamed about the deserted bloodied streets of ravaged districts aimlessly.

It was bored to death. There was nothing left to murder. Anything that could be murdered was either dying or killed by those accursed Lost Souls. Idiots could never appreciate the art behind roasted flesh as it is being ripped apart…

Then, as it wandered off from the group, it picked up the scent of humans. Living humans. Fresh meat. In its glee, it pounced in great leaps up the hill that the scent was leading it towards. It stopped short by the door, however, when it smelled a hauntingly homely smell: Brimstone, sulphur and, most notably, dried demon blood.

 _No… It cannot be!_ It shuffled around the flesh-containing building to make sure that **_he_** was not present. The smell was strong yet it became faint as it stopped back by the building's open door. **_He_** had just left the premise a short while ago.

It hesitated. On one hand, it now knew that the very threat that had ravaged its home was in this realm with it. On the other hand, it had not tasted the blood of a human for so long and the scent within the ruined building was greatly appetising.

Speaking of humans, the shock of the unknown flying object had made it completely forget about the humans hiding behind the solid wood countertop.

With a loud screech, it prepared a fireball in one hand, hungrily anticipating the beautiful shrieks to come.

"NOW!"

It saw a split second flash before a surge of pain flooded its body, zooming straight for a solid concrete wall.

oOo

Reimu, Marisa and Sanae watched the cloud of dust where the imp crashed.

"Do you think we did it?" meekly questioned Sanae.

"'Course it did! I just let loose a fully-charged Master Spark at 'im!" was Marisa's confident reply. "I mean, who could ever stand up after that?"

An angry demonic shriek answered her boast.

"Well, that imp can." Reimu pointed toward the dust cloud that now had two glowing yellow lights within it. _So the note was not lying about their resistance to danmaku… Could this person have lived through the incident of 20 years ago?_

"Hey! Snap out of it, Reimu!" snapped Marisa as she shook the shrine maiden's body violently. "We need to go. Right. Now."

"…Got it." Her train of thought effectively derailed, she called out to Sanae who kept staring at the imp, "Oi! Sanae! Quit staring at your boyfriend there and go!"

"Wh-what? Right. O-o-okay!" She then jogged hastily out of the bar to catch up with Marisa and Reimu who were already hovering a few metres from the cliff side, heading towards the power plant.

Unbeknownst to them, however, a small hidden camera in the bar was watching their every move…

* * *

 _In an undisclosed location somewhere within the power plant…_

A figure sat hunched by a wide holographic screen. It was the only source of illumination in the room, the room itself pitch black.

"As expected, they dealt with the Hell Imp accordingly." The figure mused as it rested its head on its metallic arm, rewinding the tape analytically. "Their natural skill has helped them escape without a drop of blood to be shed."

The figure then sat up straight and stopped rewinding when it saw a fully-armoured helmeted man appear next to the unconscious Reimu, kneeling down on one knee as he placed a gun by her side. What intrigued the robotic figure the most was the gesture made by the man as he placed the gun: He seemed to gaze upon the shrine maiden's face and putting the gun in her hand gently. "There appears to be a connection between the Hakurei miko and this brutish anomaly. It contradicts what the scrolls say about him."

Skipping forward to the point where Reimu was calling out to Sanae, the figure pressed play and let the video run normally. "No matter," it said in a gravelly voice. "As long as they could get rid of that pesky nuisance, my plans will go on unchanged."

It watched the rest of the video before proceeding to click on another surveillance video. The video was live and could switch between multiple cameras. Its label, "Yagokoro Medical Centre".

 _Wait, was the Moriya miko blushing when she left the imp?_


	4. Walking the Streets of a Current Hell

"Reimu?"

"…"

"Reiiiimuuu?"

"…"

"REIMU!"

She glanced around to see the magician standing with her hands on her hips and her foot tapping on the ground slowly in impatience, "Hmm? What is it?"

"Don't you 'hmm?' me, Reimu! We've walking down this damn street for ages already!" she chided.

"Relax, Marisa. Relax. Signal's pretty bad down here if you can't tell," she replied calmly as she pulled out her phone. She pressed the power button and showed Marisa the screen.

She leaned closer to look at the small signal strength indicator at the top right corner of the screen. "Ceh! Emergency calls only…"

Reimu then looked at her with a face that reeked of 'I-told-you-so'. "Deal with it."

"She's got a point, Marisa", Sanae butted in. "This was your idea, after all."

Marisa replied with a frustrated moan.

oOo

 _Moments earlier…_

The three girls flew away from the hill as fast as possible, making sure to get as far away as possible from the demonic imp. After a few minutes, they slowed down and hovered in the air for a bit to assess the situation below.

The wind blew gently in the burning ruins of streets and homes, a soothing breeze in the ravaged underground metropolis. Embers fluttered around like the petals of a cherry blossom during the height of spring. It was an oddly beautiful sight for the three maidens to see as the embers complimented the scene of blazing buildings that provided an amber-orange glow throughout the caverns of the Underground, creating a setting similar to that of a late evening sunset. The ever-glowing bright blue column of light emitted from the power plant at the centre of the view. At any other time, they would have seen that blue column as the Underground's finest decoration, second only to the Palace of the Earth Spirits in elegance.

However, the strong metallic smell of blood that hung in the air was a constant reminder that this beauty was built upon the suffering of many others. Entrails and body parts littered the streets as far as the eye could see. Corpses of all shapes and sizes could be found dangling from rooftops or strewn about left, right and centre, with very few in perfect condition.

It was made painfully clear to them that these demons did not discriminate in choosing their victims. Man or woman, human or youkai, young or elderly, healthy or sick, all were mercilessly slaughtered.

"This is… I cannot even begin to describe it." Sanae said in shock and disbelief at the carnage before her eyes.

"Yeah, no kidding. Whoever these guys or girls or…"

"Demons", interrupted Reimu.

"Yeah, demons. Whatever." Marisa said while rolling her eyes. "Point is, these demons have practically thrown the Spell Card rules out the window and are wreaking havoc the good ol' fashioned way."

"I noticed", she stated.

Before they could continue, they felt a finger poking at both their shoulders. "What is it?" they asked in annoyed unison to a concerned Sanae.

"Don't you guys think the streets down there are awfully…quiet?" she asked.

They then both looked down to the city below. Sure enough, there were no demons in sight. Not an imp to be seen.

Reimu hovered lower for a minute or so then she hovered back up again.

"Huh. There's absolutely nothing there. Other than a few weird gaping mouths with a glowing ball in them scattered here and there, there are no demons around."

 _That's odd. You'd think with carnage of this magnitude that this place would be flooded with'em…_ Marisa thought as she looked around. "Hey, Rei. You wanna give Yukari a call?"

Reimu shot her an incredulous look. "Firstly, why don't _you_ make that call? Secondly, why _Yukari_ of all people?"

"I lost my phone back in the bar and, for your second question, she's _Yukari freaking Yakumo,_ remember? Gap hag extraordinaire? She's the only person who can get us out of here. Besides, it's looks FUBAR down there." As she said this, her hands were flailing around, much to Reimu's amusement.

"What's a foo-bar?"

"Something I learned from one those movies I borrowed from Rinnosuke."

"Oh."

Reimu then reached into her pocket and pulled out her smartphone. She then checked the signal strength of the area. No bars. She then nonchalantly informed her of said lack of bars. No one is happy with this. Sanae, on the other hand, continued to ponder about the disappearance of the demons and their motives in committing such cruelty.

Then, Marisa had a wonderfully beautiful idea. If the signal was poor up here, then it surely would be stronger on the ground where the transmission towers were. She reasoned that it would be a better use of their time looking for a plausible source of transmission on the ground than fly around aimlessly hoping to find the sweet spot where the satellite signal could penetrate far enough through the solid rock ceiling of the Underground. The huge geyser hole that acted as the main entrance was a no-go.

Too many flying demons surrounded that area. It was like they were guarding the power plant below from intruders. Thus, the only rational idea was to walk the streets for signals. She stroked her chin at the brilliance of this plan. After dragging Reimu and Sanae over for a brief discussion, Marisa and co. were about to trek the deserted streets of Hell…

oOo

After walking for almost an hour with no signal to be found, they decided to take a break by a fountain in the city square; the only place they could find that was not completely drenched in blood and entrails.

"Still got nothing, Reimu?" asked Marisa as she fanned herself with her hat.

"Nope", replied Reimu.

Sanae looked around for a bit, scanning the area for survivors in the hope that maybe, just maybe, they could save someone. She pulled out her phone and checked her signal before quietly putting it away. She had just remembered that she still had her phone. Luckily for her, Reimu and Marisa did not notice. She dreaded to think would they would do to her if they noticed. After all, an extra phone meant wider coverage and higher probability in getting a signal. Just in case they did, however, she decided to start up some small talk to distract them.

"Say, Marisa. Have you ever handled a gun before?" she started to ask.

Marisa let out an amused hum before replying.

"Funny you ask me about this. Why not ask Miss Red and White over here? She's the one who handed the guns to us."

"Hey! A demon imp was going to attack us and there were guns on the floor. What else was I supposed to do?", snapped Reimu.

Marisa laughed heartily at this. "Relax, chill out. I know as well as you do that someone gave these to us. I mean, you're not the kind of person who puts poorly written sticky notes on weapons."

"I'm not the kind of person who puts _anything_ on weapons!"

"Don't you think these look kinda strange?" said Marisa as she examined her gun, ignoring Reimu's rant. This prompted Reimu, who had stopped ranting, and Sanae to examine their own guns.

The gun was nothing like anything they had ever seen before. It looked like something Nitori would make if she was hopped up on crystal cucumber. Its body was a metallic black with a brass handle. On its chamber, the label 'LFG MKII' was inscribed. It was no doubt a weapon of futuristic origin yet the scratches on its body spoke volumes of its age.

Marisa loved the feel and weight of the odd gun. Then, whilst her two friends were occupied in examining their guns, she held hers firmly with her right hand, her arm outstretched, taking aim at a conveniently placed tin can on a bench a few metres away. Her pointer finger gently caressed the trigger, assessing the pressure needed to pull it. With a deep breath, she steadied herself to place the can in her sights…

"What are you doing?"

"Uwah!" While she was deep in focus, she did not realise that Sanae and Reimu had been watching her the whole time, their guns fully examined. Her antics were confusing and worrying both of them so Sanae decided to ask her why she was doing so. Which resulted in a currently startled Marisa.

In her panic, she fired off a flurry of shots before unsuccessfully attempting to hide the gun away in her hat. Luckily for her, Reimu and Sanae's attention were not on her.

Instead, they watched as one of the lasers hit the can, which then recoiled off the bench, over their heads and into a lamp post. The lamp on the lamp post then shattered upon impact with the can and the shards along with the glowing hot bulb fell into the trashcan beside the lamp post, causing it to burst into flames. As it burned, embers fluttered out of the fire and into the air, floating around.

As it so happened, one of the embers fell onto a trail of oil, setting it on fire and setting off a trailblazer that went around the fountain where they sat, out into the far end of the street in from of them and made a sharp left into a warehouse.

It was unclear to them how there was even a trail of oil in the first place but it was speculated to have been a survivor's last ditch attempt at killing the demons before he died in the middle of setting up his trap.

Were he still alive he would have been proud. The moment the flames went into the warehouse, it exploded in a great ball of fire. Charred limbs of demons could be seen flying out of the explosion at incredible speeds. The girls, who at this point had come to accept the absurdity that was Gensokyo, cheered in delight like children witnessing a fireworks show for the first time.

Then, they heard a terrible roar…

oOo

"Come on! We're almost there! Hurry!"

The girls were on the run. A huge horde of demons hot on their tails. And they were running out of steam fast.

Apparently one of the debris from the explosion pierced straight through the heart of a Gore Nest that was from the sidewalk across the building. Of course, should a Gore Nest be destroyed in any way, the cavalry will come running. And run they did.

As soon as the roar died out, multiple portals appeared out of nowhere with imps and Hell Knights charging out of them. The empty streets became full once more as reanimated dead bodies possessed by evil spirits emerge out of the woodworks. The demons flying in the air also came down to join in, wanting to be part of the hunt.

The girls then ran as fast they could to find the nearest building to hide in. However, everywhere they went the demons were quick to follow and they blocked off most, if not, all of the buildings.

Except for one. The Yagokoro Medical Centre.

Safety was within reach! There was still hope! They sprinted all the way towards the medical centre in a pure adrenaline-fuelled mad dash. Aching legs be damned. The demons followed suit. Soon it was not long before they were within the medical centre's compound.

Then, they heard an automated voice that blankly stated, " _Demonic presence detected. Initiating lockdown on facility."_

Shutters began to rapidly shut off every window and entrance from top to bottom in a cascading chorus of clacks.

Reimu watched in horror as the shutters made their way down from the tenth floor to the fifth in 3 seconds flat.

To make matters worse, the horde was breathing their necks already, unleashing a hail of fireballs upon the girls.

The entrance was already beginning to close shut. The demons, closer with every second. They, at the worst possible moment, were out of breath. They were pretty much dragging their feet at this point. Sanae tripped over and fell. Things started to look grim for them.

But, Reimu had one trick left up her sleeve. Mustering up all of her remaining strength, she picked Sanae up in one swift move and slung her over her shoulder. She then ordered Marisa to hold on tightly to her and told her fire her Hakkero.

Marisa was confused but was in no position to question her and fire a Master Spark towards the demons behind them, sending flying straight into the medical centre's entrance at speeds that would make the tengu blush. Noticing that the entrance was halfway shut, she began to worry that they might be zooming to their deaths.

Right before they hit the solid metal shutter, Reimu kicked open an interdimensional rift while yelling out, " _INTERDIMENSIONAL RIFT!"_

Once they got through the rift, Reimu planted her feet on the floor and tossed an exhausted Sanae aside, sliding to a stop mere inches from a wall.

Regaining her bearings, she walked towards a chair behind the medical reception desk and slumped into it. Looking over the desk she saw Marisa, who had been thrown off by inertia, unconscious with her head buried in her hat. Sanae, on the hand, landed perfectly on a row of waiting seats, fast asleep.

Stifling a yawn, Reimu grabbed a stack of papers on the desk and arranged them neatly before resting her head on the stack. Her eyelids felt heavy. She could feel her fatigue catching up to her. Sleep was sorely needed.

Just before her mind slipped away into the realm of dreams, she could hear the automated voice announce, " _Welcome to the Yagokoro Medical Facility. We hope to fix you up soon~"_

"Fuck you."

And with that, Reimu Hakurei fell asleep, unaware of the chaos that was about to unfold on the surface…


	5. Hell Hath No Fury

"Thank you for coming! Have a nice day!" said a cheery-looking Kaguya as she waved goodbye to an elderly elf. She watched as the old elf hobbled out of her tent, step by wobbly step. When the elf was finally out, her smile slowly turned upside down and then she let out a long, irritated sigh. Reaching under her neatly decorated mahogany desk, she pulled out her sleek beast of a laptop and booted it up immediately. Her shift was about to be over in about 5 minutes but she didn't care. From late evening till night, she had been stuck in this white-washed tent, having to tolerate not only the blandness of the whole setup but also rows upon rows of people who believe that she could provide answers to all of their problems just because she was coerced into working as an 'information consultant' by none other than the Brain of the Moon herself.

She was never one to leave the confines of her own room let alone for the benefit of others. However, after Eirin suggested to her 'lightly' to take up the job by the Old Hell Geyser, she felt the need to be altruistic for once and 'willingly' accepted her offer (not before being dressed in a nurse outfit. For the right tone, 'suggested' Eirin). And so she found herself placed in a pretty little red and blue tent located by the rim of the geyser that led to the Underground.

It was a hectic place, that geyser rim. Medical staff rushed in and out of tents to care for the increasing number of patients that suffered wounds from demonic attacks. Moon rabbits acted as crude immigration officers, directing a seemingly never-ending stream of refugees; people running away from the hellhole below, into two campsites. The medical campsite on the eastern side of the rim or the shelters on the western side. The refugees were sorted into the camps by assigning them one of three colours: red, blue or red-and-blue. Red for medical wing, blue for shelters. Red-and-blue was reserved for refugees who had questions on their minds that were out of the officers' job scope.

And this was where Kaguya came in.

While the eastern and western wings encircled the geyser rim, one tent on the northern side stood out amongst the multitude of tents. It was located at the midpoint of the circle of tents and was easily identified by its distinct red-and-blue pattern with a smiley face on the sign in front of it, making it stick out like a sore thumb and thus led many a survivor towards the tent with entire arrays of questions to be answered.

Questions ranged from the sensible ("How do I know if the barrier outside can really protect us?"), to the non-sensical ("If I was turned into a guy and made out with you, would that make me straight or gay?"), to the outright stupid ("May I know where the information consultation tent is?"). She had to go answer every single question they had, as per her job description, sitting still by her mahogany desk. All the while smiling sweetly. She understood, and indeed she did, that these people were looking for help and were forced into leaving by beings from another dimension and thus it made sense that their minds may have been befuddled by the horrors they faced. Her inner princess dictated that it was vital that she be understanding of the circumstances of the people lest she be chided for it.

Her inner princess also reminded her that patience was a scarce resource and that it was ruthlessly depleted as each person came by with yet another set of questions.

Now, with 3 more minutes before the end of her shift, she could no longer hold herself back from engaging in her favourite pastime activity. The tent was filled with the soft hum emitting from her LunarWare gaming laptop. She checked the security feed outside to make sure that there were no people lined up in front of her tent. She felt her heart race. This was it. The moment she had been waiting for. After being denied access to it for over 4 hours, she finally was able to resume her paused game.

She gulped. Her hands began to sweat a little as she placed her left on the keyboard and her right on her mouse calculatedly. Out of compulsion, she looked at the clock on her desk.

One more minute till shift ends.

She gently pressed on each key where her fingers were placed to ensure that her keyboard worked fine. Her mouse was moved around the board sporadically for a brief moment to check its sensitivity. It was crucial that she did so for she was already up against the final boss: Deathshead himself.

Normally, she would never go through such a lengthy process before resuming a game. However, she was playing _The New Order_ on Ironman difficulty, which meant that she only had one life and death would result in her restarting from the very beginning of the game as checkpoint saving was disabled. To make matters worse, it was essentially Uber difficulty on steroids thus meaning she had to fight through waves upon waves of enemies and bosses at their highest damage output and accuracy and still live.

10 seconds remained.

It was do or die now. Countless hours of playing and replaying, many sleepless nights restarting the game again and again, it all accumulated into this moment. The final step to glory and satisfaction was just one boss away and she would not let it go to waste.

The bell had rung.

Her shift, over.

She clicked 'Resume' as soon as the bell went off. She was now locked in a duel to the death with Deathshead, piloting his stupid robot.

The fight was long and arduous. Her health repeatedly being battered away by Deathshead's ruthless onslaught. Her armour completely gone, her ammo running low but she saw a silver lining in this gloomy situation she was in. Her enemy's health was also low. All she had was a couple of shotgun shells, some rockets and one rifle round. Not enough but the environment will help her gain that extra damage needed to take him down.

So she weaved around the claustrophobic map, taking potshots whenever she could as she ran from cover to cover grabbing anything she could find. Armour, small health packs, ammunition; she took them all if it meant surviving his onslaught of dual gattling guns in the tight industrial hellhole of a map. Pipeline fires obscured her vision, leaving her to pre-emptively guess his movement pattern in the already small area. She could hear the pounding thumps of his robot stalking the walkways, each thump speeding the beating of her heart in anxiety.

Then, she saw it. Her ray of light. He had walked past the pillar she was hiding behind and his back was now facing her. Without a moment's hesitation, she let loose a barrage of rockets followed by a head-on charge with her shotgun before finishing it off with a lucky headshot with last rifle round. Deathshead let out a roar of anguish as his robot began to fizzle and burn in malfunction.

She was done. At long last, she had won. Now, it was time for her to execute the twisted Nazi general that lay by her feet to officiate her long fought victory. She stepped up to Deathshead slowly and calmly. When the execution prompt popped on her screen, she stopped. It was an effort that cost her hundreds upon hundreds of hours of frustration, anger and grief so it was only right that she be granted the leisure of basking in her glory before she made it an actual in-game achievement.

A sigh of relief was heard in that dainty red and blue tent. Then, came the muffled cheers and intense flurry of fists being pumped in the air. The tears then came, rolling off the gamer's cheeks like dew falling off a leaf; strangely elegant. Her joy could never be expressed in words even if she lived through another millennium (or until the next big game came out). Kaguya, was indeed, in her own state of nirvana.

After wiping off the tears and calming herself down, she adjusted her seat and straightened her back. She then placed her hand on the keyboard and prepared herself to press the one button that will immortalise her victory in her computer…

"Lady Kaguya! The Enma wishes to speak with you!"

She felt her heart cease all activity. It could be possible that she actually died at that moment in shock at the sudden intrusion of the moon rabbit. If she were a mere mortal, she reckoned, she might as well have dropped dead and have her name in the list of silly deaths. _Time to add another one to the list,_ she thought as she mentally placed it above 'death by late-night marathon'. "Let her in, then." Kaguya commanded, her laptop still on but game paused yet again.

The offending rabbit then left as silently as she entered before making way for Shikieiki and her fellow slacker, Komachi. Kaguya, following her usual routine, set her laptop aside and tacked on her service smile.

"So, how can I help you?"

There was a moment of silence as Kaguya stared upon a stern-faced Shikieiki. Noticing that she appeared to begin speaking, Kaguya opted to interrupt her instead lest she sits through another one of her sermons about the need of a productive lifestyle.

"I'm terribly sorry, dear customer. It appears that we are now closed. Why don't we arrange a meeting sometime later, okay?"

"Very funny. Look, I'm here today to discuss some urgent matters at hand that are of utmost importance regarding our current situation."

"If you're looking for Eirin, she's still holed up down there doing god-knows-what in that facility of hers."

Shikieiki groaned in annoyance. "No, we're not here for her and if we were, we wouldn't come looking for you. And wipe that smile off your face! If there's anything I hate more than false assumptions, it's fake smiles."

"Alright, alright…No need to get your panties in a twist, Judge Dredd."

A giggle escaped Komachi's mouth, earning her a sharp glare from her boss.

"Listen. We are here to talk about the demon invasion that we are facing right now."

Upon hearing that, Kaguya leaned forward a little. Her expression now colder but her smile still remained.

"You want me to just hand over some info, don't you? Just get me to relive the Night of Demons all over again, hmm? Get me to tell the tale so long that people actually sleep in the middle of it? Is that it?"

"Unfortunately, yes. We have a feeling that you may be able to help us as your people have encountered them several centuries ago."

oOo

 _Outside, one of the immigration officer rabbits spot a seemingly sickly old woman. The old woman hobbled with every step and was having a horrible coughing fit._ _"Ma'am, are you alright?", questioned the rabbit to the old woman. She stayed silent, holding firmly in her hand an orange glass orb. Panic flushed through the rabbit's system the moment she saw the old woman smirk and twist and deform her face into that of a hideous creature..._

 _oOo_

"Hmm. Very well. What do you want to know?"

She shot question after question to the lunar princess, gaining more and more pieces of vital information regarding the demons and their failed invasion of the Moon; where they came from, how they fought, how the Lunarians halted their invasion and, most importantly, the key figure that stopped them for good.

"We were on the brink of losing the war. Our men, outnumbered. Our people, slaughtered. All because of the insatiable desire of our king to expand our territory beyond our own realm. To create a 'pure' empire, he declared. And his first target was the unknown realm of Hell. The alleged 'fourth' Hell that Hecatia sealed away. Thus, he ordered his scientists to open a portal to the realm to begin his conquest of 'purifying' the most 'impure' of dimensions. But there was a reason the Hell Goddess put it away out of sight.  
By the time we found out, it was too late. While we gained the upper hand during the first few days, they had already bargained a deal with a grieving general to resurrect his dead wife. However, like all deals with the devil, it will always be in his favour.  
The general did as he was told and snuck in a Summoner disguised as a frail old woman into the Lunar Capital. Once the deed was done, the Summoner wreaked havoc within the capital and summoned entire armies of demons. The general was rewarded for his treachery by having his wife return in their form as a Succubus and had his life essence drained to produce more of their unholy soldiers.  
And it was during our darkest hour, when hope seemed to have all but faded away, _he_ came. The Armoured Man. _He_ annihilated wave upon wave of those reckless heathens with nothing but his bare hands and flaming sword.  
 _His_ rage was felt and shared by the Lunarians who then fought with rejuvenated spirits and ferocity. It was called the Night of Demons for a reason: everything ended within the span of a night. And it truly ended when the Slayer destroyed the teleportation facility that housed the main gate and chased them back to Hell. Before _his_ departure, _he_ left a scroll containing crucial information about the Slayer which is now in the Vault of Secrecy."

As Kaguya finished, she noticed a soft snoring sound in front of her. Komachi, it seemed, had dozed off. Shikieiki, having heard the whole thing, already had her Rod of Remorse hanging above her subordinate's head. She smiled softly at the sight before her. However, there was something else that needed completing and that would bring her a greater feeling of satisfaction. She quietly dragged her laptop back in front of her and proceeded to press the key that will signify her triumph over the game.

Just as the execution animation was about to play, just as the Rod of Remorse was about to smash in Komachi's head, the world flashed brightly and darkened.

* * *

 _"Please help me!"_

 _"Don't eat me!"_

 _"We're dying over here, help!"_

Kaguya awoke to find the campsite around her in ruins. Her two guests were gone and apparently aiding the rabbits in protecting the survivors. The barrier erected by Yukari was still up but the barrier team were being overwhelmed by the sheer number of demons. The familiar smell of centuries past filled the air around her. Death was around wherever she looked. A woman just got ripped in half by a Hell Knight several metres from where she lay. To her right, a dying moon rabbit was in the middle of breathing her final breaths, her shotgun held firmly in her arms.

She looked over to her left. There, right next to her, she saw a most heart-rendering image. Her sorrow quickly overwhelmed her as she immediately sat up with tears flowing down her face. Her laptop had been destroyed. With it, her hard-earned victory. It was the ultimate level of griefing and it was administered by none other than the harsh reality of life around her.

Sorrow turned to grief. Grief turned to rage. Rage then moulded itself into the purest form of anger: tranquil fury.

Kaguya, with steel resolve and clear mind, grabbed the shotgun from the dead moon rabbit beside her and charged head-on into the thick of the action where the demons had most of the survivors cornered.

Upon arrival, the first thing she did was smash the butt of the shotgun into the head of an unsuspecting imp and kick it to the ground. Then, as the imp yelled and screeched in pain and anger, she shoved the shotgun down its loudmouth and blew its head clean off. Then, realising that the surrounding demons had noticed her, fired off an elegantly dizzying storm of danmaku to disorient them. She checked the amount of shells she had left. Just enough. So, while the imps and Unwilling fruitlessly try to regain their senses, she took aim and fired a shell at each and every single demon that encircled her.

 _One to the head. Blew off a leg on that one. Shot that imp's arm away._

This calculated dismemberment of the circle of demons went on until she eventually ran dry. By then, she had five dead demons and fifteen others wishing they were. While they were as good as dead already, she wanted to make sure that she finished the job. She wasn't willing to have another 'laptop incident' on her hands. Her moment of victory must be officiated as soon as possible. Thus, she walked over to each of the fifteen dying imps and Unwilling and proceeded to mercilessly stomp their heads in with her stilettoes, whack them repeatedly with the solid rear end of her shotgun until their bones went soft or take a lesson from Eirin and surgically remove their organs from their gaping wounds. When she came up to the fifteenth imp, she saw that it was simply too weak to extract any sort of reaction and allowed it the luxury of bleeding out.

The spatters of blood that pelted her face with every hit did little to disgust her. If anything, it made her feel an odd feeling of bliss. It was almost like she was playing _The New Order_ again on her beloved gaming machine but this time, she was Blazkowicz. She was the hulking beast that struck fear into the heart of Nazis and executed them with extreme prejudice. The demons; the other imps, Unwilling and lesser demons that bore witness to her fury indeed felt fear being instilled into their heartless hearts. But not for the same reasons that the blood princess believed to be.

Rather than the Lunar Princess being similar to that of a Nazi-killing Polish American, they saw _Him_ within her. _His_ tenacity, _his_ relentless anger and brutality. Their fears would soon be amplified once they noticed that she wasn't alone.

They could almost hear _him_ coming already, pumping his shotgun that blasted their names on them...

* * *

 _ **A/N: Hey there, guys. KobeNiku here. First off, I'd like to apologise for the late update. The new academic term began sometime last month and the amount of work and studies I had to do essentially doubled so updates will be irregular for quite a while. Anyways, let me know if you have anything to say about this chapter or this story as a whole. Or anything, really. See you then!**_


	6. Border Control

"TAKE COVER!", yelled Commander Inaba as she dove behind her squadron's barrier just before the hail of rockets hit her. She leaned against the hastily put wall that they had built, panting heavily as she tried to calm herself down.

"Are you alright, Commander?", asked one of her soldiers.

"I'm fine," she huffed. "Just need to catch my breath after being chased by that cursed Revenant. How's the rest of the squadron?"

The soldier looked over her shoulder. She could see that dozens of her comrades were struggling to hold the post as they tried their best to keep the demons a far enough distance away from their last remaining outpost. "They're not going to be able to keep this up much longer, sir. Morale is at an all-time low."

Commander Inaba checked the condition of her squadron members. Her green jade eyes allowed her long range sight which meant that she could tell, without having to move an inch from her position, that her troops were truly running low on morale. Their eyes were void of motivation and despair seemed to be occupying that void.

"Damn it. Any news on the whereabouts of Lady Kaguya and her two guests?" inquired the Commander.

"Miss Komachi was last seen entering the med bay after helping out our guys at the eastern wall when a couple of Hell Knights managed to break through. The whereabouts of Lady Kaguya and Justice Shikieiki remain unknown."

Her body ran cold upon hearing it. "Did anyone make it?", she whispered gravely.

The moon rabbit surprised her when she smiled. "Everyone is fine and well, sir. Aside from a few broken bones and bruises, the girls on the eastern front are alive and well and have already fortified the wall."

"Wow. Ok. That's good. Very good." replied the Commander incredulously. Prior to joining the Yagokoro Defence Guard, she used to be enlisted into the Imperial Army. She was one of the few surviving moon rabbits from the Night of Demons and she knew first hand just how powerful Hell Knights were. Having one person alive was a feat on its own let alone an entire division. "I guess we owe Miss Komachi a favour, then. How is she? You mentioned that she is currently in the med bay, correct, uh…"

"Corporal."

"Ah, yes. Corporal. Why is she in the med bay? Was she injured? Is she going to be fine?"

"Actually, she was virtually untouched during her battle with the mindless brutes. Her scythe kept them at bay and distracted them enough for our girls to take them down with suppressive fire."

Inaba felt the need to sigh out in relief but her question still remained unanswered. "If she was unharmed, why did she have to go to the med bay?"

The rabbit in front her looked around from side to side before reporting sternly. "Moments after she was done with brutish demons, she began to look very pale before throwing up and passing out. Reports from the medical staff state that she was experiencing dizziness, nausea and fatigue. Post-examination of her vomit revealed that she was ingesting a large amount of chocolate, milk and chicken for an extended period of time; about a month or so. Since the medical staff preferred to keep their patient's info classified, I could only speculate that it was a side effect from engaging with the enemy."

The Commander gave her a knowing smile and then laughed heartily, confusing the moon rabbit. "Sir, this is not a laughing matter nor is this a situation where one could to engage in schadenfreude. With all due respect, I did not expect you to be the sadistic type, sir."

Inaba laughed even harder at this. Stifling her giggles, she placed her hand on the moon rabbit's shoulder. "Corporal, what is your name?"

Baffled, she answered. "Benette. Corporal Benette, sir."

"Right. Listen here, Corporal Benette." started the Commander. "Soon, once you have reached a certain point in life, when you've come to appreciate how a new life is created on this world, you'll understand why." As she said this, her jade green eyes were looking down on Benette's face as though she were her grandmother passing on her wisdom to her grandchild. And like her grandmother, her answer only served to fry poor Benette's brain.

She couldn't help but smirk as Benette sat down by her side with a dumbfounded expression on her face, still trying to comprehend her commander's words.

 _BOOM!_

A loud explosion was heard in the distance and she felt the ground shake. "Corporal! Corporal Benette! Get up!"

But had shut down earlier and she remained still, her dumb look plastered on her face.

She sighed in annoyance. "You there!", she ordered the soldier to her right. "Take her to a bed and let her rest. She's having a case of BSOD here."  
The soldier complied and carried her into the outpost but not before saluting her.  
She returned the salute and switched on her in-ear walkie-talkie;

" _Border Crew, this is Stronghold. What's the situation, over?_ "

" _Stronghold, this is Border Crew. We advise Stronghold to ready their arms and fortify their forts on the double, over."_

" _Why you say that?"_

 _"_ _We suggest that you look over your wall, Commander. We're about to pack on the heat."_

The Commander did as she was told and climbed the wall. Her heart sank to the floor at what she saw: Two Mancubi have been summoned into the arena along with a Hell Baron and three Revenants. All of them, along with the rest of the demons appeared to be rushing towards the Border Control Pillbox.

She felt her temperature drop from her head to toe. Dread crawled its way up her spine and she, at long last, began to feel the intense wave of hopelessness and despair that had drowned out the morale of her troops.

She switched on the walkie-talkie again, this time contacting her old friend from the war. This friend of hers used to be her commander but applying late into the YDG meant that she was currently below her in terms of rank. Being in the infamous 'Eagle Ravi' infiltration unit, many saw her as a ruthless assassin as her sharp, penetrating eyes accentuated the impressions they already had of her signature wooden mallet. But in reality, as Inaba found out once they were friends, she was a friendly shy girl from the countryside. The mallet was a family heirloom that she carried around everywhere to cope with homesickness.

Came in handy whenever the barracks were craving for mochi…

Anyway, back on track. With her knowledge and experience in the years she spent in the unit, she needed her help to assess the situation on her end. She gulped hearing the static on the other end clear.

" _Are you seeing this, Seiran?"_

 _"Yup. Clear as day. Or at least, as clear as the ongoing orange flashes of energy allow me to see. Where are you, bunbuns?"_

 _"Ughhh…I'm at the outpost holding down the fort and quit with the corny nicknames, country bumpkin. How are you holding up there by the pillbox?"_

 _"I'm already joining the rest of the crew in Ran's protective magic sphere here. Chen's been begging Yukari for assistance but she's too spent after erecting the geyser barrier."_

 _" I see…Wait. If you and the rest of the crew are in the sphere, who's defending the pillbox?"_

 _"_ _Until now, the automated turrets have done a good job at keeping them in check but repeated hits from Rev-rockets finally took their toll on them."_

 _*KABOOM*_

 _"…_ _What was that?"_

 _"_ _That, buddypal, was the last turret you just heard. Now, we're officially sitting ducks over here."_

 _"_ _Sounds bad."_

 _"_ _Sure is. At this rate, it'll be a few more moments before they break down the outer defence force-field and come knocking down this barrier."_

 _"Look, Seiran, stay right where you are right now. I'll be coming in with my team to get you out."_

 _"No can do, Inaba. No can do. That's a stupid idea and you know it."_

 _"_ _Oh ye of little faith. I've got enough troops to defend the outpost while you don't cause everyone's hunkering down with you. You kept on picking on me for having dumb ideas but who's the stupid one now, huh?!"_

 _"_ _You do realise that I can shoot bullets from another dimension, right? That I can shoot through barriers, right? Am I right or am I right, Inaba-chan?"_

She was met with only silence from the other end. 10 minutes passed by before she heard the static clear up again.

 _"_ _Hello?"_

 _"…"_

 _"_ _I know you can hear me, ya cheeky bunny.",_ said Seiran coyly.

 _"Can't hear you~ Too busy making my way towards you right now."_

 _"_ _YOU WHAT-?!"_

Gunfire and expletives were heard in the background, screeches and roars followed.

" _You dumbass! You're gonna get yourself killed!_ _Even if you brought in your entire squadron and had them all armed to the teeth, there's no way you're going to make it here! What part of Revenants, Hell Barons and-"_

" _Tell you what, why don't continue our little chat when we're face-to-face, m'kay?"  
"But-"  
"Byeee~!" *kchk* _

_oOo_

Seiran's eyes never left the window the whole time even after her friend had hung up. Her hand clutching tightly a locket. A silver heart locket.

She opened it up gently, revealing a young Seiran with her arm over a grinning Inaba, who was her junior of a few years. Laughter. The laughter that came out of Inaba's mouth, she felt as she could hear it guffawing from the small picture housed by the locket. And in the picture, there was also a third person, smiling while chewing on her food hungrily.

"Oi, is it done?", snapped a voice behind her, reminding of the cold steel pressed against her head.

"Yeah, it is done. The outpost commander has now left her station. Their defences are now weakened. Now, let them go, filthy traitor.", Seiran coldly answered but with a hint of sadness.

The figure behind her chuckled lowly. She clearly took satisfaction out of the whole thing. Glancing behind her, she saw a large display monitor that served as the surveillance monitor. On it were more than a dozen live surveillance views, each containing an unconscious moon rabbit bound and gagged. Each of them her squad members. No sight of the Yakumos.

On a separate screen, the turret defence control system could be seen. All of them were offline with the exception of the only destroyed turret.

With a press of a button on her remote, the turret defence systems were back online and the chorus of unlocking doors could be heard.

"Me? A traitor?" mocked her captor, adjusting her orange hat. "That's plenty rich coming from the one who betrayed me…"

"Kuh-!" Seiran felt the gun being pressed harder against her skull. "You're delusional. I know you don't want to do this." Her body began to tremble erratically as she tried to hold in the tears. She then looked into her captor's red eyes with her own, full of sorrow.

"Please…", she pleaded. "This isn't you. The you I know would never aid those heathens so please! Try to fight it, please…!"

"SHUT UP!" yelled the figure as she pistol-whipped her. "Nggh…ARGHH!" The figure held her head, her face contorted in pain. Flashes of images overloaded her mind. Images of peacetime. Of picnics and mochi. Of many battles fought together with these traitors. Of receiving something important from them…

No. It must be the brain-washing. Her benefactors told her so during her training.

"ARGHH! IT HURTS!"

"Fight it! Fight the influence!"

"I thought I told you to sHUT UP!"

*BANG*

* * *

 _Boom. Headshot._ Inaba swiftly loaded another bullet in the chamber before firing straight into the eye of an incoming Cacodemon.

Her personally hand-picked squad of five soldiers were currently holed up behind the long mahogany table which lay in front of the ruined information consultant tent. Corporal Benette, senses regained, was the squad's designated scouter while she took up the mantle of squad leader and sniper.

"Corporal, has the heat simmered down a little?"

"Negative, sir. If anything, the heat seems to have actually increased. Priority target has just shown itself on the field and is opening up more portals."

The Commander needed no further info. Arming herself with scopeless Imperial-grade Barettes on each hand, she positioned her focus on the ironsights. Her jade eyes glowed a brilliant green. The Summoner was zooming right into her sights. She could see the bastard's movements as clear as day.

 _Huh. Too easy. *BANG*_

The double sniper shots echoed amidst the chaos like rumbling thunder. The Summoner was dead. Missing a head and a torso. The spraying blood from its zipping corpse complimented the bright orange geyser barrier nicely, adding hues of red into the rusty ground.

Strangely, as Corporal Benette observed, the demons were not even alerted in the slightest to the death of their Summoner nor the resounding echo of the rifles. They appeared to be occupied with something. And they were determined in dealing this _something_ that they left the Border Control pillbox alone. The Commander was quick to notice.

"Alright, I want the two of you to come with me and rush to the pillbox.", she ordered. "The rest of you, remain here with the Corporal and act as our rendezvous point, you got that?"

The squad gave her a silent salute. Then, the Commander ran off towards the pillbox, leaving the Corporal with three soldiers in securing their rendezvous point.

The Corporal resumed her scouting duties and observed the massive horde of demons a few hundred metres in front of them with her binoculars. This _something,_ she reckoned, was being a major threat to the demons as they seemed to be fiercely engaging with this unknown. With the Summoner's death, it became clear to her the _something_ was winning albeit at a slower pace than _Him._ Then again, if anyone was powerful enough to take on a horde of demons of that size and number of high-level monsters and _kill_ off around a quarter of them, it was reasonable to think that _He_ had graced them with his presence once more except that official records from the _Watatsuki Archives_ stated that he had done the same with a horde thrice as big and double the kill rate.

She wanted to know. To know more about this mysterious force that was diverting the demons' attention away from them. She continued to observe through her binoculars. Damn demons. Move away. A Hell Baron was blocking her view with its grotesquely muscular body.

Then, she got her view. A hole had blasted through the Baron's abdomen in a violent burst of gore. As its body dropped to the ground, she stared intensely in anticipation of the identity of this force of nature.

Her jaw dropped along with her binoculars.

Amidst the roaring Hell Knights and Mancubi, the screeching of Lost Souls, Revenants and countless imps, stood a single woman; _Lady Kaguya._ Drenched in blood and flesh. In the process of reattaching her arm. And tossing away a Mancubus blaster arm.

Benette could not help but look on in a twisted sense of awe as her nation's symbol of Lunar sovereignty fly about gunning down demons with weapons from her fallen comrades and ripping them apart with an aerial devastating damnaku-plasma rifle combo, a beautifully deadly artistic pattern.

Suddenly Benette felt her respect for royalty increase tenfold.

* * *

 _ **A/N: Hey there. KobeNiku here. First off, I'd like to thank all of you for even reading this story. To be honest, this was something I cooked up from a sleepless stupor so I wasn't really sure if it was ever going to catch on but it turned out quite alright, I guess. Anyhow, I tried something a bit different in this chapter by using OCs instead of the usual cast. It's my first time dabbling in this OC biz so again, I apologise if it is poorly done. Tell me what you think. Cheers.**_


	7. The Shadows Beneath Shed Light

A tall woman dressed in an unorthodox shrine maiden uniform stood by the Hakurei Shrine entrance, her long flowing black hair swaying to the sudden breeze. Her uniform's oversized detached sleeves and one-piece leotard revealed her lean, solid physique, a figure befitting the holder of the position as guardian of the Great Hakurei Barrier. Her expression was etched with concern as she watched the scene before her: An unknown threat has breached into Gensokyo and somehow the Great Hakurei Barrier is still intact. In the distance, she could see plumes of smoke rise from the multiple human settlements. Due to the high location of her shrine, she easily saw that the smoke and flames seemed to make a path with Youkai Mountain as its origin. Screams of the suffering villagers echoed throughout the air, eerily fitting the night sky that glowed a faint orange from the many fires below. With a cold expression on her face, the woman walked back into the shrine. It had been quite a while since she had seen Gensokyo in such a state of disarray and she had the scars to prove it. If this incident of such a scale was anything like the last time, it meant that she had to be serious again. And that meant the return of the mask that she had worn long ago.

In the shrine, she strode towards her room like a silent gust of wind. Her daughter's room was just across hers and she would rather keep her away from the dangers that were about to come. Sliding the door shut, the Hakurei shrine maiden shuffled around the room until she heard a soft 'creak'. Then, she slammed her fist down through the creaking floor panel and fished out an old chest. With a smirk, she opened the chest. Inside was a pair of red metal gauntlets decorated with ancient holy symbols and a fox mask that had a large crack across the left eye.

She stepped out of the room, donning her gauntlets and heavy duty combat boots. The gauntlets, despite their age, fit perfectly on her lean muscular arms. Her mask was placed on the side of her head as she did not have to wear it yet. Satisfied with her gear, she headed for the shrine entrance with long, steady strides. She had a job to do after all.

* * *

 _Reimu sat up quickly from her futon upon hearing the screams. Whatever sleepiness she had was gone as she felt her intuition kick in. Even though her intuition was, as her mother said countless times whenever she trained with her, underdeveloped, she still generally knew when something was about to happen and whether said something was a good thing. Whatever was happening now definitely was not a good thing. And it formed a cold lump in her gut to think about the severity of this dreaded something._

 _She looked around her room to check for anything that might jump out at her from the dark. She only had to make a quick glance to ensure the absence of any threat in the vicinity as her room was quite small. The only place in her room where something would even try hiding would have to be the underside of her desk where it was partially covered by a modest flower-print cloth that her mother found whilst returning from her usual youkai extermination duties._

 _After making sure that no threat or portal-using youkai were around, she slowly crept outside her room. She tip-toed all the way towards the shrine door. There, a tall woman stood, adjusting her gauntlets and placing her mask on the side of her head._

 _"_ _Mama?", little Reimu quizzed. "Are you going out somewhere, Mama? Can I come too?"_

 _The woman turned around and knelt down on both knees with grace. She then looked straight into her brown eyes as she ruffled her hair, her rough palm incidentally soothing the sudden itch on Reimu's scalp._ _"_ _I'm going out to do something very important. Some bad people have come to Gensokyo and I need to go and deal with it," said the tall woman with a small frown before adding "And, no, you cannot come."_

 _"_ _But why? You always never let me go and I'm scared, Mama!", she protested, her tears beginning to well up. "I know that you always fight the evil and all but I feel like there's something very terrible happening, Mama, and I don't know what to do and it's making me feel lonely and scared and you always come back hurt and-eep!" She let out a surprised yelp when she felt a hand pat her head and ruffle up her hair again._

 _She looked towards the chaos outside before turning back to her daughter, smiling._

 _"Well there's no need to, Reimu. No matter what happens, I'll always be there for you. 'Sides, I always come back, don't I? So," she paused for a while before breaking into a huge grin, "Take care of the shrine properly eh, Reimu? You've always been a good daughter and still are. Now, I'm in need to be off. See ya, Rei!"_

 _She wanted to say something in return but at the moment all little Reimu could manage was a weak nod. She didn't really want her mother to go but she knew her mother did not want to go either. The distant look in her mother's eyes was all she needed to know that whatever it was her mother had to deal with, it was serious enough to make her worried. It has to be. As far as she could remember, the last time she looked this worried was when she was about to lose against Yukari in a game of mah-jong. Needless to say, sake bottles were sent flying along with a certain parasol-wielding blonde._

 _"_ _Mommy?" she asked._

 _"_ _Mmhm?"_

 _"_ _Does this have to do with Miss Yukari again?"_

 _"…"_

 _"_ _Does it?" she questioned again._

 _"…_ _hehehe."_

 _"…_ _?"_

 _*phbt* "Wahahaha!"_

 _"_ _Eh?" said Reimu with her face blank with confusion as her mother burst laughing._

 _"_ _No, silly! This has nothing to do with that slimy hag!"she exclaimed, her face red as she tried her best to contain her giggles._

 _"_ _Then what is it then?" Reimu flinched when her mother's expression turned dark for a brief second before smiling again._

 _"_ _Nothing I can't deal with that's for sure!", she assured her with an energetic thumbs up and a toothy grin. She then stood up straight and cracked her knuckles. "As the Hakurei shrine maiden, all those who dare disturb the peace of this land will have to go through me!", she exclaimed, her eyes gleaming. "No mercy, no prejudice!"_

 _Reimu felt a huge sense of admiration towards her mother, charisma and pride gushing out at her as if she was graced by the presence of a great warrior. However, she never had a chance to voice it out as a huge ball of fire suddenly came crashing down towards them and exploded in a violent burst, sending both mother and daughter flying._

 _She felt herself slam hard against of the shrine's pillars. She tried to get up but could not do so. Her legs were trapped underneath the shrine's remains. Her vision was slowly dimming. She could only make out a silhouette of two women fighting a lot of creatures. One woman, who was wearing something she could only guess as a mask, made quick work of the oncoming monsters with her bare hands tearing them apart limb from limb as she fought. The other shorter woman, who she assumed was a friend of the bare-handed brawler, mercilessly blasted the demons to giblets with a weapon that looked akin to a rod or a stick. Then came a third person, presence announced through blowing bits of demon into the air, who joined the women and fought using both their methods to visceral success. That scene that, even as simple silhouettes, she could only describe as pure violence and brutality was the last thing she saw before her eyelids finally closed, feeling the warm embrace of darkness…_

She woke up to find herself back with her face buried in her arms by the hospital reception desk. She took a peek towards the waiting chairs in front. _'Sanae's still there,'_ she noted. She also made note that Marisa, who was supposed to be on the floor with her face in her hat, wasn't. Yawning and stretching her arms out, she scratched her face a bit before setting off to find her. As she began her search, she smiled to herself, a small grin, reminiscing the fun times she spent with her mother. She felt as if she's forgetting something in those memories, though. But it had been a long time so it was only normal for memories to be fuzzy.

* * *

The entire floor was almost pitch black save for a few convenient emergency lights lining the walls. The reception area was wide and spacious, having about five rows of ten chairs and still enough room for busy staff to zip through. _'If there were any people here to begin with, that is…"_ she mused. With the exception of the occasional whirring of the security cameras, silence reigned.

A cold eerie lump began to form in her gut. Everything in this hospital seemed to be in perfect order. _Too_ perfect. She was never one to fear the dark but the darkness made the whole thing worse. The pamphlets in the waiting area were arranged nice and sharp by the waiting area. Not a single drop of blood nor a footprint smear tarnished the floor tiles. The wards, whilst empty, showed no indication of having been inhabited at all as if it never had patients to begin with. The silence seemed to grow louder with each passing second.

"Hello?", she called out in the dark corridor. The wards stayed quiet. "Hello? Marisa? You there?"

Still no response. She took a look behind her to make sure no one was tailing her. Nothing out of the ordinary save for a lock of green hair sticking out from behind a door of one of the wards. _'Is she awake already?'_ , she wondered. "I can see you, you know."

"Boo, you're no fun," whined Sanae as she lumbered from her hiding place and walked up towards her. How silly. Did she not know of the Hakurei intuition? Reimu simply smiled at her antics. She's still her junior, after all.

As she approached her, however, Reimu suddenly felt uneasy. Her intuition just spiked. It felt strong, telling her to run far, far away from this person that was coming closer. Her eyes began to dart around for any possible threat but the only other living entity besides herself was Sanae. Her breathing grew short, her heart pounding. Then, she saw it: her hair was far too green and her smile looked like as if it was plastered to her face. The feature that stuck out the most, however, were her eyes: shining a faint orange glow with a tinge of her usual green. "What's wrong, Reimu? Are you feeling well?"

"Oh, nothing's wrong, Sanae. Nothing's wrong," she replied, trying her best to keep herself from shaking. She put one hand behind her back and asked her a simple "How was your nap?"

Sanae then stopped in her tracks for a brief moment before proceeding to continue her advance, nice and slow. "Oh, I've had a great nap, Rei! I owe you one, hehe~!" she replied with a wide smile. "I wonder how has yours been? I imagine that it'd better than the floor I slept on."

"Oh, I slept well." She felt a small sense of security as the hand behind her managed to slip her gun out without a sound.

"Are you sure you're okay, Rei?"

Her instincts now through the roof, Reimu steeled herself for the anticipated outcome. "Yeah, I'm fine. Why do you-"

"Then why are you _moving away from me_?"

Without a second thought, she broke into a run while firing away in 'Sanae's general direction. ' _Drats!',_ she cursed inwardly as none of her shots hit. As she ran, she never looked back but she knew that 'Sanae' was about to catch up to her as she heard her footsteps grow in tempo and weight. Whatever it was that was chasing her, she was certain was not human as people never roared nor shrieked in such a horrifying manner.

She tried to take flight but every attempt was promptly shot down with a rocket from behind. However, none of them actually hit her. The rockets would zip past her and hit the wall or the floor near her but never _at_ her. ' _Damn it! Bastard's toying with me!'_

She stole a quick look and then ran faster: 'Sanae' was now a towering skeleton, patches of flesh on its bones like rags, eyes hollow and flaming orange. The monster was freakish as it looked like someone installed jetpacks and missile launchers to a giant's rotting corpse, which would've been funny if it weren't out for her blood. It seemed to cackle in amusement as it chased her, echoing down the corridors.

In a last ditch effort, she erected several magic barriers behind her and kept on running before slipping into a random room. Never once did she look back.

" _Demonic presence detected. Initiating lockdown",_ announced the PA as soon as she entered the room. Metal panels then slammed the entry shut, sparing her the trouble of locking the door behind her. ' _Where am I?',_ she wondered while she tried to regain her bearings and calm down. The room she was in appeared to be the facility's security and surveillance room as she noticed that there were multiple weapons cabinets lined up along the wall and a multi-screen surveillance monitor at the end of the room. She then went up to the monitor and examined the cameras' current footage.

The outside of the building seemed to be clear and so was the reception that they slept in. ' _I knew it! I knew the monster outside isn't Sanae! Who else could this be then with Marisa snooping around the archives?_ _Hm? What's this?'_ She was intrigued to find out that the medical centre surveillance not only covered the whole facility but also areas that she did not expect to see; the geyser entrance on the surface and a laboratory in an undisclosed location. The laboratory appeared to have an ancient-looking scroll hovering above a table in a display case. Upon zooming in towards the scroll, a sudden flurry of images flashed in her mind, causing her immense pain.

"Arghh!", she grunted as she clutched her head in a tight embrace, dropping down to her knees. Scenes of an unfamiliar land of blood and death, childhood memories with her mother but with an unknown man with them, Yukari's sad face moments before grabbing her face; all of them flooded her head. Her face was contorted in agony; tears ran down her cheeks as she tried to endure it. Her fingers threatened to draw blood from her scalp; her body now on the floor, writhing. Then, after a gruelling three minutes, the images stopped popping up when she heard a voice say,

 **"** ** _Do not fear, child, for Salvation is near,  
Do not fear the blood, child, for the pain will be over,  
Do not fear the Unseen Mastermind, child, for the Scroll of His Testament shall shed light for you and guide you.  
Rejoice. The Slayer, he cometh. And He is never one."_**

A calming wave of relief washed over her as soon as the voice disappeared from her head. Panting and drenched in sweat, she wanted nothing more than to slump into a chair and rest. However, she was back on her feet again when she heard some loud noises and screeches right outside of the room she was in...


	8. The Reckoning

"Haah…haah…haah…*cough*"

Kaguya looked on towards the horde of demons amidst the pile of shredded flesh and bone that surrounded her. Her body, while seemingly unscathed, was running on fumes. She could only afford to hunch down as the exhaustion was beginning to take its toll on her. Despite being an immortal, there were only so many times one could continuously regenerate and revive on-the-go before feeling drained.

The horde, which appeared to be an endless wave of demons, were closing in on her. Wave after wave, she fought them all. And she fought them well. Whatever brutal methods they use in an attempt to stop her, she always one-upped them.

When a Mancubus blew her arm off several waves ago, she swiped that arm mid-air with her remaining good one and rushed towards the grotesquely obese demon. Dodging its slow heavy swings, she plunged her severed arm into its heart with the sharp bony end like a crude blunt knife, blood spraying her face upon puncture. The end result was a dead obese demon with its one eye bulged out in pain with Kaguya's arm sticking out as though it burst out from its heart. She felt immense pride in viewing her handiwork, shedding a single tear as she couldn't help but remember the beautiful executions she had fun doing in a modded version of _The New Order;_ her own mod, made on her dead PC. Remembering that awful image was enough to reignite her anger towards the legions of hell. She then heard a loud roar followed by heavy charging feet.

Wasting no further time, she yanked her arm out of the corpse's heart and reattached it to its rightful replace before ripping off the blaster from the corpse. She then quickly spun around and fired the blaster towards her pursuer, blowing a gaping hole in its chest. It was only after the it dropped down in its own entrails did she recognise it as a Hell Baron.

Now, as her body ached and strained, she was still determined. Her eyes gave off a flare of burning rage. Rage that could only be quenched by the eradication of these beasts.

And she knew. She knew that she had struck fear in the hearts of these bloodthirsty abominations. Fear that she could taste from their anguished screams and screeches from afar; pitiful attempts at a battle cry. Their eyes and mouths wide open as though in disbelief and terror. " _How could this be?!_ ", she imagined they'd say. " _Why is it that a mere frail being wipe us all out?!"_

However, they remembered. They remembered very vividly. Remembered that the very person who made a legend of himself for tearing through Hell was, too, once a simple fleshbag in their eyes.

"You bastards…", she muttered as she forced herself to stand straight. "You really think you disgusting lot can defeat ME?!"

The demons roared back in reply as if accepting her challenge.

"Idiots… you really are something special, huh? Here I stand, bathed in the blood and guts of your comrades and your response to that is to continue attacking _me_?", she said as she proceeded to pick up an assault rifle on the ground and walked towards them.

Without a care in the world, she began walking faster towards the rushing horde. Then walking gave way to running. It wasn't long before she was charging head on into the roaring mass of demons yelling, _"Come at me, you filthy heathens!",_ as she gunned the frontline of imps down. She grinned as she saw them flop and writhe. Then, upon realising that she was about to run out of ammo, she fired off the last burst and then jumped into the fray, wielding her spent rifle as a club.

"Man," she uttered as she swung the heavy assault rifle over her head with a manic grin. "This!" _Whack!_ "Sure!" _Thwack! "_ Beats fighting Mokou any day!" _Splat!_ " _Gah!... Fuck_! _"_

She keeled over in pain as she felt an intense burning sensation going through her chest. Putting her hand over it, she realised that she now has a fresh, charred hole where her heart's supposed to be.

Looking behind her, she saw the culprit: A Hell Razer who was about to run away upon noticing her glare. Not that anyone would blame it for fleeing; it was extremely rare to find prey that was not only tenacious but impossible to kill.

"Get back over here you coward!", she shouted as she chased after it, whacking several Imps that got in her way. The Razer was fast, nimble and agile but it was no imp and it wasn't long before she was hot on its tail. However, just as she was about to snatch it, she was blown into the air by an explosion and then impaled by a large bony hand. " _Arghh!"_ She felt herself be violently pulled into the air as she noticed the skeletal fist protruding through her chest. _"_ Damnit! Not again!"

Everything around her became a sickening blur as she was spun around like a ragdoll on a stick. Apparently, her tormentor felt the need to watch its prey's agonised expression as she was then removed, turned around and then impaled again so that her face was facing its gloating grin.

Kaguya was royally miffed by this point. First she was forced to do the stupid counselling job for Eirin, then her laptop was reduced to ash, and with it, her game and now this? Being turned into sock puppet for insolent skeletons to fool around with? Enough was enough. Fuming with anger, she shot a glare straight into the Revenant's flaring sockets.

"Oi! Give me your rocket launcher for a sec!"

The Revenant could not contain its shock. Its jaw dropped. ' _That's not possible!'_ , its face seemed to suggest. _'That's not possible at all! This flesh before me should've been dead!_ But all that shock meant nothing to the person glaring at it.

Kaguya, unfazed, forced herself to push further down the demon's arm, painting it with her own blood as she pulled herself all the way to its shoulder, and smashed its head with its own shoulder-mounted rocket launcher. She then slid right off it as the skeleton's flight went erratic, crashing down in a cloud of dust.

She stood up moments later, emerging from the dust cloud, panting. The wounds she sustained had just healed. Her eyes hungrily scanned the arena for any sign of the cowardly demon. Then, she felt its red hot laser singe her cheek, its bright stream immediately notified her of its origins. "Why, you little…!", she huffed before sprinting towards the demon.

Blinded by rage, she did not notice the arrival of another fighter behind her, joining the battle. One that announced their presence with waves of plasma. One that greeted skulls of Hell Knights with their heel. One of pure fury.

* * *

"How are you feeling right now, Miss Onozuka?"

"Oh, I'm feeling a lot better now. Thanks," replied Komachi in a hushed tone as she picked up the cup of water offered by the nice-looking moon rabbit nurse. She then let her gaze lower to the small bump on her stomach.

' _How did it come to this?',_ she wondered, putting her hand softly on it, her eyes wistful as she smiled.

It was not that she forgot what happened. If anything, she remembered it very well. That fateful meeting at the eel shack, the drinks they had together, the joys they shared, his confrontation with her boss over extra-marital affairs and the proposal that came right after.

How could she not refuse a bold man like that? A man that, despite her multiple attempts at discouraging him due to what she was, always kept coming back? A human, faced with the wrath of the Judge of Paradise herself, stood his ground and gained her respect? A person, who made her, the ferryman of the dead, feel treasured and loved? Of course she'd say "Yes!"

Then came the happiest two months of her life. After lengthy negotiations, her boss officiated the wedding and forced them to do all her paperwork. Mountains of it. But they didn't care for they had each other. It was the perfect job for him, she later found out, as his body couldn't handle hard physical labour. So she helped him get a job in the nearby town as an accountant. They then settled down in a small wooden house that they built together close to the Sanzu.

Often, he would always come back from work with the odd flower or trinket that he would pick up on his way back. And he would always wear that goofy grin of his when presenting them to her. In return, she would occasionally ferry him across the Sanzu and just talk the day away, ignoring the odd mosquito bite or two or whispering sweet nothings into each other's ears before getting lectured for public indecency by Shiki. While she would usually scold them before they got any further than hugging, their greatest achievement to date was doing the deed successfully on the boat without detection under the cover of fog. And she was none the wiser when she met them later, oblivious to their flushed red faces. Komachi felt herself blush as she reminisced about their daring escapades that followed. Oh, how the boat rocked indeed…

But, the joy she had was short-lived. He later contracted an incurable disease that caused him to bleed from sores that popped up on his body. A disease commonly carried by mosquitoes. He fought on for a good two weeks but the high fever that came with it ended his pain. Komachi, stricken with grief, donned her work clothes and headed out to the river Sanzu after burying him behind their house, ready to ferry him across one last time.

When she got to her boat, he was already there waiting for her. Throughout the whole trip, they only looked at each other with wistful smiles as the boat rowed across the misty waters. Before long, they had already reached the shore.

" _I'm sorry, Komachi…",_ he finally said before he got off her boat. " _I really am an idiot, aren't I? I'm going to be unable to give you gifts like I usually do."_ He wore his signature grin, betraying his sorrowful tone.

He tried taking her hand in his but it simply falls through. _"If anything, I guess, take heart that your boss…no…I mean, your friend, will always be there for you no matter what. It's been fun, right? So please, don't show me that pained face…"_

' _Dummy,'_ she recalled her reply as her eyes were now fixated towards the cup of water in her hand. ' _You already gave me plenty. Now go. Continue on to the afterlife. I'm sure she'll be lenient in judging you. These gifts of yours, no matter how simple and common, I'll cherish forever.'_

"And even now, when we have long since parted, you've given me another gift." Her eyes welling up already, she caressed the bump a few more times before downing the water in one gulp to suppress the incoming strain in her throat.

"Ah, yes, what a wonderful gift you are going to get! Hell's gift, that is."

She suddenly felt her body become paralysed as soon as she heard the voice in front of her. Her eyes, the only part of her that was unaffected by the paralysis, became wide with shock seeing that the nurse that tended to her was now dead on the floor, her head shot along with the rest of the staff in her ward. Staring her dead in the eye was a manic dishevelled Defence Guard officer, her uniform stained in fresh blood.

"Kuh…! What are you…doing!", she grunted as she struggled to regain control of her body.

"Well, you see, heh… We're doing y'all a favour here," the officer started, twirling her gun around. "I am preparing every patient here to be offered a chance to be…ascended! So, I spiked the water with a bit of paralysis agent."

As she said this, she could see from the corner of her eye that three demons had entered the ward. ' _Crap! If they're already here, then the whole facility is…!"_

"Now, now I know what you're thinking. ' _What about the others who won't be ascended with me?',_ right? Well, do not worry. Rejoice, because this ward has been chosen to be the first! The others will have their turn soon. And now," she said, bringing out a large knife and slowly bringing it down to her stomach. "I was gonna have the boys over there mince you up like the other patients to be part of the new Gore Nest we're building…"

As if listening to her order, the demons began tearing apart the dead staff and piling the corpses in the middle of the ward. When they were done with the staff, one moved on to the paralysed patients who could do nothing but look on in frozen terror as the demon mutilated them. The other two circled around the pile of gore, deep in trance.

The crazed officer let out a deep chuckle before continuing. "…However, I so happened to read your medical report before waltzing in here and it seems that you have a very _special_ something in you and it would be _such_ a waste if I just kill you now…" She then stroked Komachi's bump and gave it a lick.

Komachi's heart then began to pound when the officer put away the gun and slowly took out a glowing orange glass orb from her pocket, knife still poking her stomach. Beads of cold sweat were rolling down her forehead, breathing heavy.

"That's right. You're too special to be ascended as a tool for aiding Hell's army. Instead, you will _be_ part of Hell's army as its Succubus!" she cackled, the orb now placed on Komachi's exposed navel after she made flicked open her hospital gown with her knife. "Spawning more soldiers for the conquest, you will be an indispensable asset! Oh, what a glorious fate! You will begin with the one you've already got right…here…"

The knife was raised. The orb was in place. She could feel the energy within it writhe, begging to be freed. A single tear rolled down her face. She closed her eyes, awaiting her final moments before she was turned.

*BLAM*

"Huh?", both she and the officer blurted out when a demon's headless body flew past them. Furious reloading could be heard followed by the clattering of an emptied shell dropping on the floor.

The entire ward became silent. The officer appeared to be frozen in shock, staring in the direction of Komachi's would-be saviour. Then, the remaining two demons sprang into action to avenge their fallen comrade. Their roaring and screeching were swiftly silenced with two shells that tore their arms and legs off.

By then, the paralysis had begun to wear off as she found herself able to turn her head and move slightly. She wanted to know for herself who this sudden ray of hope was. And there she saw, sporting a rugged old jacket and messy green hair, pumping her Remington slow and steady, Shikieiki walking up to the petrified manic officer who still had the knife in her hand.

Pointing the barrel down her mouth, she pumped it again.

"Put the knife away, kid," she growled. "Or I'll make tax summons from your rotting skin."

"W-wait!", the officer pleaded, backing up into a wall slowly as she dropped the knife. "T-This! This can't be right! They told me this place was clear a-and you're not supposed to be even…!"

*BLAM*

"ARGH! Fuck! My leg!" The officer then lay limp by the wall with her right leg blasted in half, groaning in agony.

Komachi had little time to react to the whole thing as Shiki quickly tossed her a fresh change of clothes, folded into a neat stack, onto her lap. "W-what?", was all she managed to say before promptly silenced by a finger to her mouth.

"Suit up, grab your scythe by the bedside and follow me. Things are going to pick up heat real soon." She then went off to stand by the hallway just outside the door she kicked in earlier.

Komachi was dumbfounded to find that her scythe was indeed by her bedside. Trying her best not to hit the writhing body of her tormentor, she quickly dressed up and exited the facility with Shiki.

"Where are we going, exactly?", she questioned, walking briskly to match Shiki's pace.

Without looking, she answered coldly, "The Underground. I'm paying a visit to an old friend…"

* * *

"Uh…Reimu?"

"Yes, Marisa?"

"Wanna huddle up in that security room for a bit longer?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Why would I?

"Touché. How about the office room Sanae and I huddled in then? It will be fun~! Flicking through secret files together, telling each other ghost stories, have tickle fights, just you, me and…"

"Okay, now you sound like a pervert you…"

"What do you think did this, you guys?", interjected Sanae, pointing out to the hallway before them. It was a redundant effort on her behalf as they were all already staring at the display before them for quite a while. On the ground, sprawled headless and armless on the floor, lay the body of the demonic skeleton that terrorised them along the hospital corridors. Whoever or whatever it was that killed the demon must have been very strong and full of anger as the blood spattered all over the place indicated extreme prejudice. They had been staring at it for the past ten minutes or so since the ruckus outside their respective hideouts died out.

On its body, Reimu just realised, was a note. Like the ones pasted on their guns earlier in the bar, it was hastily scrawled on. ' _Guy really loves his Post-Its, huh?'_

She moved in to pick up the note, reaching out with caution as to avoid touching its remains. For all she knew, that thing could just be playing dead. As she crouched to pick it up, she noticed that the only thing that remained of the skeleton's head was a pile of mush. She thought nothing of it as she straight away stood up and held the note up to read it. ' _I wonder what he's gotta say this time…"_

With bated breath, Marisa and Sanae, who were busy staring at the corpse and poking it earlier, held on to each other in anxious anticipation as Reimu began to read it.

"It says here, let's see…" She cleared her throat first and put on a pair of imaginary glasses. " _Hurry and retrieve the Scroll that lay in the hands of the Moon's Brain…"_

"Moon's Brain?", blurted a seemingly confused Marisa. "The Moon is a rock, not a living thing. Why would it have a brain? What do you think, Sanae?"

"Maybe it is a codename or title of someone important in the Lunar Kingdom?"

"Let's see…Someone important, eh? Must be some big shot," said Marisa, stroking her chin.

"Reisen, maybe?", Sanae suggested.

"No, not her. She can fire shots at people and make them cuckoo with her red eyes but she's far away from becoming a big shot."

 _Twitch_

"Kaguya then?"

 _Twitch Twitch_

"Haha, no. She's the Lunar NEET; all she ever does is stay holed up in that room of hers. Makes cool gameplay videos, though. Would never do something this extreme."

"How about Sagumo?"

"Seriously? That one-winged, sign language angel? No way."

"Then how about…?"

"OH MY GOD STOP IT ALREADY!", yelled Reimu, causing Sanae and Marisa to jump in surprise and clam up. They then slowly turned towards an irate Reimu, her eyes glaring daggers towards them.

"First off, it's obviously Eirin. Secondly, let me finish reading it!" She then sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, shaking her head. "Honestly, how old are you people again?"

"You mean, you don't remember my birthday?", asked Marisa in mock disbelief. "Oh, what terrible friend you are! I remembered yours since the day we met!"

"Wait, what about mine then?", added Sanae, prompting a blank stare from both Marisa and Reimu.

"…I give up."

"Oh, come on Rei…", said Marisa. "We're only having a bit of fun. Don't we have enough doom and gloom around us already?"

"True…"

"Well, loosen up a little would'ja? Better to go around investigating feeling good than feeling tense all the time. Also," she paused, taking out some files out of her hat. "I found some interesting info in those file cabinets."

Reimu folded her arms and raised a brow. "Go on…"

"Okay, so, all of the files that I have with me here right now contain reports and records of dealings and projects that this facility has with Former Hell Solutions. Most of them seem harmless; business transactions, backup generator instalments and joint CSR projects like annual vaccine injections to Underground citizens. However," Marisa then pulled out a bright red file. It had no fancy plastic label that categorised it; only a taped strip of blank paper. "This one right here involves the recent construction of the new power plant."

Upon hearing that, Reimu and Sanae came closer to her to see the contents of the file. Then, Reimu suddenly snapped her fingers and fished out the note out of her pocket.

"Wait, I forgot to finish reading it!", she reminded.

Now it was Marisa's turn to raise a brow. "Wait, you mean there's more to that note?"

"Well, yeah!", Reimu shouted. "I was about to read out the rest of the note before _you_ cut me off!"

"Okay, okay, get to it already."

Reimu cleared her throat before she held the note up again. " _Hurry and retrieve the Scroll that lay in the hands of the Moon's Brain. Then, make haste to the source of the Pillar of Light. Someone dear to you awaits."_

" _Someone dear,_ eh?", Marisa quipped. ' _Does this mean that Nitori's still alive?'_ She then shook her head and went back to the file in her hand.

"Speaking of light pillars and moon brains, seems here that Miss Eirin's humble establishment here has been working together with the energy company to venture into interdimensional travel. Specifically, to Hell."

Reimu's eyes widened as she saw pictures of the Hell expedition. The arid red land, the ominous rivers of blood and skull ornaments, the tomb and the sarcophagus, it all matched the images that flashed in her head not too long ago. She felt increasingly uneasy as the pictures went on to show the retrieval of the tomb which was simply labelled, "#2". On it, an ancient pair of gauntlets… "Alright, I think we get the gist of it."

"But that's not all," Marisa continued. "Every single project prior to the one in this file were approved and signed by Eirin and Satori, the CEOs of both establishments. This one? Signed by none other than the co-founder herself, Orin, with Satori nowhere to be found. Not even a mention. None from Eirin either as well. Instead, the second person is this unknown lady called Olive Capirie. She's apparently the head neurologist but there's no mention of her anywhere in the staff roster when I checked earlier."

"Curioser and curioser…", Sanae commented.

"Is 'curioser' even a word, Sanae?", Reimu questioned. All she got for a reply was a shrug.

Suddenly, they heard a loud bang coming from the distance. Fearing the worst, they scurried into the security room and checked the entrance camera. To their horror, a large swarm of demons were banging on the shutters with several large pink demons with sharp tusks ramming into them. " _Entrance shutter integrity at 15 percent!"_ , warned the automated PA.

"Crap! They're gonna break in at any moment!", cried Sanae.

"Hold on! I'm going to try something!" Reimu then quickly scrolled through the many security cameras, hoping to find an escape route.

" _Entrance shutter integrity at 10 percent!"_

"C'mon, Rei! We don't have time for this!", yelled Marisa.

"Give me a few seconds!", Reimu yelled back, eyes darting around the multiple security feeds in their vicinity.

"Found it!"

"Where is it, Rei?!", Marisa demanded.

"It's just down this corridor." She then brought her discovery to full-screen. "There's an open elevator not down the direction of the dead skeleton. If we hurry, we can still make before they break in."

"Wait, doesn't that seem oddly suspicious…?", questioned Sanae.

"No time for that, Sanae!" snapped Reimu. "Now grab what you can from here and move!"

They then scampered around taking as many weapons as they could carry from the weapons cabinets and ran out to the corridor. And sure enough, there, in the distance, was the bright white light of the elevator waiting for them to enter.

"Alright, let's move, move, move!", ordered Reimu.

Just then, they could hear a deafening boom followed by a cacophony of shrieks and roars. " _Entrance shutter integrity at zero percent."_

"RUN!"

They then scrambled into a mad dash towards the elevator as the rumbling footsteps of demons closed in. Luckily for them, they managed to get into the safety of the elevator. However, there was no relief to be had as the doors seemed to stay open.

"Damnitdamnitdamnitdamnit!" Reimu mashed the 'close' button repeatedly in a frantic hurry, threatening to destroy the button altogether. She peered over the elevator panel and mashed even harder: The pink demons were already down the corridor, charging straight towards them.

"CLOSE, DAMN YOU!", shouted Marisa in a panic. As if heeding her frantic order, the elevator doors then began to close albeit ever so slowly.

"Umm…uhh…umm", mumbled Sanae as she fidgeted and shuffled around the elevator thinking of ways to help. Then, her face lit up. She remembered bringing along a rocket launcher on her way out. She instinctively propped it up to her shoulder, pointed side facing the charging demons. Then, as the Pinkies charged closer towards them, as the door began to narrow, she opened fire.

Reimu and Marisa jumped in shock as the rocket zipped passed by, inches away from them. Their eyes then followed the rocket's smoke trail, tracking its haphazard flight as the door finally shut. They then heard a loud 'BOOM!' followed by intense rumbling of the elevator.

Without waiting any further, Reimu slammed the button that led to Eirin's office as soon as the rumbling subsided. Feeling themselves being carried upwards, they let out a long sigh.

They looked at each other for a while. Then to the chaotic view outside. Then looking at each other again. The air in the elevator became increasingly dense as the transparent elevator rose floor by floor.

Then, they burst out laughing. Tears ran down their cheeks as they laughed like madmen before calming down. Reimu and Marisa, still smiling from laughing, turned towards Sanae.

"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?!", Reimu screamed, choking Sanae and shaking her violently.

"WE COULD'VE DIED BACK THERE, YOU DAMN PILLOCK!", added Marisa, punching her in the gut.

They then let her go and pulled her into a group hug. Sanae was overwhelmed, trying to process the mixed feelings she was experiencing.

"…Thanks, Sanae," sighed Reimu. "We owe you one."

"Hear hear," Marisa added. "But seriously, warn us next time before you do somethin' like that."

After they let go, Sanae giggled a little and scratched her head sheepishly. "Well, I had to do _something_ or else I'd be deadweight."

"True…" Reimu answered. "Speaking of deadweight, what weapons did we bring with us? I got a shotgun and an assault rifle."

Marisa reached into her pocket and pulled out a .50 calibre revolver. "Well, I have this here elephant gun and another smaller revolver in my other pocket. How 'bout you, Sanae? Anything besides that rocket launcher?"

"Umm…" She then patted herself down and fished out the pistol that they got earlier. "Nope, just this."

"Oh well, gotta make do with what we've got I suppose," shrugged Marisa.

After checking their newfound weapons, they then waited for the elevator to reach the top most floor, taking in the view as they passed floors.

Outside, from the Oni-grade protective glass elevator walls, they could see the city below become desolate and lifeless. The power plant's pillar of energy shined a brilliant blue, guarded by flying demons that roam the plant's skies. Floating grotesque one-eyed blobs of flesh, flying flaming skulls, skeletons with jetpacks. With one of them wielding a…trumpet.

'... _What?'_

 _"Admin floor,"_ the elevator announced, leaving Reimu to question her sanity at the odd sight she just saw.

Upon stepping out into Eirin's office, they knew something was off right off the bat. The whole room, wide and spacious, was dark. The only sources of light were a few computer screens and the main monitor from Eirin oversaw the medical facility's operations. And sitting unconscious before them, bound and gagged to the chair, was Eirin herself.

They rushed towards her and undid her binds. Reimu examined her for any sign of injury but she could find none. "Sanae, check her desk for any indication that she's drugged," she instructed.

"On it!" She ran to Eirin's desk, illuminated by the elevator's light, and quickly came back with a paper cup and an empty small bottle of medicine. "Rei, I think this might be it."

She took the medicine bottle and read the label. _Chloroform._ "Damn…if she drank the whole thing, who knows how long she's been knocked out."

"Two days," replied a low voice from the shadows. "She's already unconscious for two days. She'll be up very soon if my estimates are correct.

The three girls took a step back at the suddenness of the voice. "Who are you and how do you know all this?", Reimu questioned, holding back the quiver of fear in her voice.

The voice then let out a low, ominous chuckle before answering. "Because, young Hakurei, I too, am a doctor."

Reimu's eyes grew wide as she heard his words, rendered speechless. Then, heavy, calculated footsteps began to approach them.

 _Kthunk, Kthunk, Kthunk._

As each step sounded closer and closer, they could see a tall slender figure trudge out of the shadows. The figure looked less and less human the closer he got to them. Then, once he stepped into the light that they took comfort in, they then saw his true form: A towering robot looming over them. He had no mouth, no eyes, no facial features. Only a vertical blue slit on his sharp angular head. Countless servos and valves could be seen moving in his joints in mechanical harmony.

The robot chuckled again, causing the girls to reach for their guns. Noticing this, he took a step forward and motioned them to stop. "Save your ammunition," he ordered in an unnatural calm tone. "You'll find better purpose shooting the wall."

Gulping down her fear, Reimu moved forward and faced him. "Who are you, really?"

Silence filled the air. She stared down the robot in an act of adrenaline-induced defiance. A low hum broke the silence before he answered her.

"My name is Dr. Samuel Hayden. I believe we can work together in resolving this crisis."


	9. Background Mechanisms

"And with that... my job here is done for now." Yukari slumped to the floor after closing a portal that she used to check up on the girls down below.

" _Yukari-sama!"_ cried Ran and Chen in unison. They rushed over to her and carried her up to a chair. Ran examined her master's flushed face and irregular breathing.

"Chen, hurry and give her something to drink! Hurry!"

Without a word, Chen scampered out of the control room. Ran waited until she could no longer hear Chen's footsteps before tending to her master.

Ran called out to her master to know of the extent of her fatigue. "Yukari-sama, how are you feeling?"

She heard only her master's soft slow breathing in response. She cleared her throat and paced cautiously towards her.

"Yukari-sama? Are you alright?"

Ran was beginning to worry. Her master was not responding. Her breathing appears to have ceased too.

What her master did earlier surprised her as she never thought that she would ever attempt such a feat. She gulped out of instinct. As she reached her hand out to her master's chair, she prepared herself for the worst.

Her grip was firm on the chair but her arm felt like jelly. What if her master's feat had consumed to much of her energy that she fainted? Or worse still...

In one swift move, she turned the chair around. There she saw the limp body of her master, Yakumo Yukari, with her arms dangling from the armrests and her hair a mess. The tragic look of... goofy grins etched on her face and drool dribbling from her mouth as she snored softly.

"Master, master!", cried Chen as she scurried into the room with a tray carrying a jug of water and a tall glass. "I've brought the water!"

Ran gave her a warm smile and patted her head as she set the tray on a nearby table.

"Good work, Chen. Now, fetch some dry towels for me please."

"Huh? Why?"

"She'll be needing it very soon."

Chen tilted her head, confused. She then shrugged and walked out. "Okay then."

The hall echoed the soft clacking of Chen's shoes. Turning left into the changing room, she brought out a stack of white towels from her locker.

"Geez, why does she need these towels anyway?", she sighed. "I understand that she needs to rehydrate Yukari-sama but it's not like she's going to be drenched in it."

A loud splash followed an equally shrill scream burst from the Control Room. A sigh escaped from Chen's lips, her head shaking slowly.

"I figured Yukari-sama was just sleeping..."

Closing her locker and turning off the lights, she hurried back to the Control Room armed with her signature ' _Ran-sama~!'_ smile to defuse any anger her master has.

 **…**

"Can't a girl get some sleep here?", whined Yukari as she dried her golden long hair. She then turned to Ran and gave her a pout.

"I need my beauty sleep, you know? Need it to keep looking young and healthy."

Ran only sighed and poured her master a glass of water with what little remained.

"Here you go, Yukari-sama."

Yukari backed up for a bit at the sight of water before taking the glass. Chen could not help but stifle a giggle seeing her behave like a cat brought near a bath. After calming herself down, she went up to Yukari and put the now empty glass on the tray it came in with.

"Feeling better now?"

"Thank you for asking, Ran, how polite of you," replied Yukari as she put on her hat and gave Ran a thin smile. "Yes, I do feel refreshed and no, I do not appreciate the rude interruption of my nap."

"I see," said Ran, taking a seat facing her master. She never looked at her as she sat, instead looking down at her own feet. "At least you are now in good health."

Without warning, she slammed her fists onto the table, her body trembling. The resulting slam made Yukari jump in her seat. Then, she noticed the glimmer of tears appearing on the floor from where her shikigami sat.

She watched with wistful eyes the sadness that her beloved shikigami was showing. Ran's fists remained on the table and her face downcast. No sound came from her but the silent sniffles and cries. Yukari then stood up and went over to sit by Ran's armrest and rubbed her shoulder softly.

"You were worried about me, weren't you?", she asked.

Ran then stopped shaking and turned towards her master. She wiped off her tears and hugged Yukari as hard as she could.

"You idiot!", she cried, hitting Yukari's back. "I thought you were on the brink of death! Did you know how painful it was to see that the person whom you have sworn to serve die before you? A person with whom you have spent most of your life with?"

"Well, I..."

"I'm not done!", Ran yelled, teary eyes glaring up into her master's own, her hands scrunched up into balls digging into Yukari's robe. "How can you be so reckless?! So selfish in your goals that you forget to realise the value others have for you? You...you...!"

Yukari returned her embrace with warmth and stroked her hair. "I have lived for far longer than most youkai do. I admit I was a bit reckless a while ago but my time is not up just yet."

Ran let go of her and readjusted her hat, her face flushed red with embarrassment. "I-I guess so..."

"I'm sorry, Ran, Chen."

"Besides, I'm still in my youth so that makes me a healthy young woman!", added Yukari as she struck a cute pose.

 _'Thanks for ruining the mood, you old hag!',_ both Ran and Chen cursed inwardly.

"Anyway," chimed Chen. "Why did you open up both a portal to the Underground and a portal to the Great Hakurei Barrier at the same time?"

Yukari responded with a sly chuckle. "Telling you now would spoil the fun. All I can say is that the portal to the Underground is simply for me to observe the condition of the girls and the portal to the Hakurei Barrier is only temporary so it will be gone by the time I finish this sentence thus ceasing to consume my energy."

"Why open it up in the first place?", questioned Ran. "It takes a lot of energy even trying to tamper with the barrier."

"Let's just say...that I've brought in some people who could aid us in this situation," responded Yukari. "We're going to need all the help we can get to deal with this."

Unbeknownst to both Ran and Chen, Yukari had opened more than two portals beforehand. And one of those portals lead straight into the medical facility below. Entering the abandoned facility are two figures. One wielding a scythe, the other armed with a shotgun.

* * *

"Wow, what happened here?", asked Komachi, pointing towards the mangled corpse of what might be a tall skeleton monster of sorts. It's head and arms appear to be either forcefully ripped off or pulverised into pulp because that seemed to be the only reasonable explanation to the copious amounts of blood painting the hallway.

"Step aside," ordered Shikieiki.

Komachi moved away from the corpse and watched as her boss kneel closer to it and poke with her shotgun. _'What is she doing?'_

"There's no mistaking it alright," Shikieiki proclaimed, certain after her inspection. "This is his handiwork alright."

"I take it, this ' _he'_ is the old friend you were mentioning a while ago?", asked Komachi.

"Yeah, it is," she replied, her expression softening. "We fought together alongside the previous Hakurei miko to ward off Hell's armies when they first appeared. We fought them with everything we had and left no survivors."

Komachi could not help but notice the nostalgic look on her face as she said that despite feeling a bit unnerved by that last sentence. It was like she was reminiscing of a past not too long ago but far away to ever relive. However, she also saw that her face was beginning to frown as she appeared to struggle remembering something.

"Hey, Shiki, are you alright?"

"Yeah...I'm fine."

Komachi let go of a breath she never realised she was holding. "You sure? You seemed to be having quite the internal fight there."

Shikieiki waved off her concern and beckoned her to follow. "Nothing for you to worry about. Now come. We have some exploring to do."

Komachi, knowing better than to press on, followed her down the hallway. _'She's been acting strange ever since she heard of the demons' reappearance. Normally she would keep her cool and would rarely ever resort to using force. Let alone outright kill them! What could have possibly happened during their first appearance?'_

Regardless of her unceasing worry, she maintained the belief that her boss and friend is alright.

 **…**

They moved along the silent dark hallway, their footsteps echoing with each step. They had inspected half of the rooms already but found nothing. The file room seemed to have potential but the strewn about documents only showed that someone had already retrieved the information she needed.

Komachi was determined to leave no stone unturned, no corner unchecked to find anything that could help reveal the location of the demon's lair. Shikieiki's focus, however, was elsewhere.

 _'That corpse...'_ she pondered. _'The brutal execution, the forceful dismemberment, it_ must _be him! But, if it was indeed the Slayer himself, why were there no signs of gunfire anywhere in the vicinity?'_

She thought back to her inspection of the dead skeleton demon. While the scene was proof of his handiwork, there were a few subtle inconsistencies. The first being the lack of any scattered ammunition anywhere. Usually he would resort to machine guns and shotguns against this type of demon but there were no casings nor shells to be found. She reasoned that he might have instead used his plasma rifle but that was thrown out the window with the second inconsistency: the lack of firearms damage on the corpse.

Instead, she saw that the demon's ribs were completely shattered, meaning that it was incapacitated by a well-placed powerful punch before being executed. Again, she tried to reason that he might have been in _Berserk_ mode while fighting it but she had to cross out this possibility as well. The demon would have been a pile of mush if that were the case. So, that left her with only one logical explanation.

 _'Wait, that can't be right. It cannot be. But the evidence proves otherwise. The only person capable of such controlled chaos is...!'_

"Hey Shiki! You might want to look at this."

"Alright, what is it?", she inquired, annoyed at having her train of thought cut off.

"Looks like a security monitoring room. There's camera views from pretty much every corner of the facility."

She went in and closed the door behind her. She glanced around the room, looking for any clues. Then, she noted that the weapons cabinet has been looted with bullets scattered across the floor. The looters must have been in a hurry.

"Komachi, can you check if the cameras recorded anything within the past 24 hours?"

"Sure thing, boss. It will take a while, though. This is my first time operating this thing and the manual that I found is pretty thick." As she said this, she showed Shikieiki the manual in question: A thick yellow book with the title, ' _Security Cameras for Dummies'._

Shikieiki was at a loss for words. _'I don't know what's worse, the fact that she thinks that's the proper manual or the possibility that it_ is _the manual these people use!'_

"As long as you get the job done, it's fine by me," she sighed dejectedly.

"Okay, on it."

She then went to sit by the long table in the middle of the room to gather her thoughts. Noticing Komachi's fervour in working out how to operate it, she could not resist a chuckle.

 _'If only you had the same attitude towards your actual job, Komachi. Then I wouldn't have waste my time lecturing you.'_

 _"Warning! Demonic presence detected!",_ announced the automated PA out of the blue as red and yellow lights flashed everywhere, illuminating the dark hallways.

 _'What?!'_

"Shiki! Demons! They're coming in from a hole in the entrance!", Komachi warned, her eyes fixated on the screen. "A large number of them are now in the building! There's also a really tall and tough looking demon leading them!"

Shikieiki, now standing next to her, stroked her chin. "Interesting, I've never seen that one before. It seems like that one is the commander of this group."

"Eh, how can you be so sure?"

She then pointed at the screen. "Notice how the demons behind him are in formation rather than being scattered around. Also, this group might be an elite force of some sort considering the absence of imps and the small group size."

 _'Small?! How is this small? There are at least 50 of them on-screen!'_ , thought Komachi in bewilderment and utter disbelief.

"So, if this is a _small_ group, then it wouldn't be wrong to assume that they're here for clean-up, right?", she asked.

"You're right on point," answered Shikieiki. "They've only got Hell Knights in their ranks which means that they're here to exterminate survivors. I have a feeling that whoever it is they're hunting down, they severely underestimated the abilities of their prey."

She then pointed towards the camera showing the view at the end of the hallway, which revealed the blown-up pieces of Pinkies and imps in front of an elevator.

"Hey, look! The elevator's open!", exclaimed Komachi in delight. "Do you think we can make it in there before they get here?"

"No can do, Komachi," she replied as she walked towards the door. "Hell Knights are pretty fast despite their size and bulky build. If we run for it, we will be cornered in no time."

Komachi, seeing that Shikieiki was now standing by the door, felt a lump form in her gut. "You're not thinking what I think you're about to do, are you?"

"Oh, I'm thinking exactly that," she replied, cocking her Remington with a feral smirk. "They haven't moved from their positions yet and someone's going to have to fix the hole."

Before Komachi could protest, Shikieiki was already out the door. Her lingering worry had come true. She wanted to run off and assist her but she knew she mustn't. She needed to keep her late husband's final gift safe. All she could do now was watch as her boss strode along the hallways towards the horde. Just then, something clicked in her mind:

 _'Wait. How am I supposed to communicate with her now?'_

* * *

 _ **Hey guys, Kobe here! The purpose of me writing here is because I'd like to apologise for this sudden and prolonged hiatus. There have been a lot of things going on with my life, most notably having to make the big move to university. Hopefully now after things have settled down for a bit I can afford to dedicate myself to this story. Have a good one, everyone!**_


	10. Yama with a Shotgun

_"_ _Is that what I think it is?", asked her visitor, his heavy combat boots clacked together as he stopped._

 _"_ _Hmm?"_

 _She spun around to see him pointing towards her display piece that hung above her humble living room doorway. The wooden part of it was facing a painting of a valley of red spider lilies in spring while its metal part was pointed towards a dark, surreal painting consisting of disturbingly contorted shapes._

 _"_ _Oh that? That was just a souvenir from back when I was stationed in Hope Town, a place in the outside world where none could be found. And yes, that is exactly what you think it is."_

 _The tall man stroked his chin in wonder. "Deep. I take it you judge souls there too?"_

 _She said nothing but walked slowly towards it, looking at it with sorrowful eyes. "I did. But..."_

 _"_ _Go on."_

 _She hesitated for a bit, her head slowly facing his._

 _"_ _Due to the nature of some of the city's inhabitants, let's just say judgement was carried out differently, okay?", she finished with a small grin, her face downcast._

 _The man simply returned her grin with a knowing smile and placed his hand on her shoulder._

 _"_ _You know, Shiki," he said, his constantly stern expression softening to one of acceptance. "Ever since I got teleported here, I've come to realise that a peaceful life might actually be a possibility for me."_

 _"_ _Huh?", she blurted, her head gradually looking up to his with a confused expression. "What are you-?"_

 _"_ _From the day I served as the commander of the Night Sentinels, my sole purpose in life was defending Argent D'Nur from the clutches of Hell. When one of my trusted men made a pact with the legions of Hell and doomed every man, woman and child to their deaths just to resurrect his own son, I dedicated my life to slaughter every single demon I see to avenge my people. Then, they succeeded in sealing me away in a tomb after laying down a trap for me in one of their sacred temples."_

 _He fell silent for a moment, looking out to the cherry blossom tree in the garden outside her living room. He closed his eyes and smiled for a bit before he words began to spill once more, allowing Shiki to let go of a breath she never noticed she held._

 _"_ _For once, I thought I was finally free from the cycle of death. However, after several millennia of tranquil silence, I was abruptly brought back from my slumber surrounded by reanimated victims of Hell, my hands chained to a metal bed. I knew what must be done. The cycle has started again. So, I ripped my way to Hell and back, a robotic figure called Samuel Hayden constantly pestering me to stop destroying what he calls 'Argent Energy' along the way. Hayden oversaw the facility of the planet I was currently on and wanted to control Hell's energy to solve an energy crisis affecting the humans of his world. And the best part, he was also the one who sent me here after all the trouble I've been through to rid him of his demon infestation."_

 _"_ _Sounds like you hate being sent here," Shiki joked._

 _He laughed for a bit before continuing his story. Shiki was startled when suddenly got up to his feet._

 _"_ _At first? Sure, I hated it. That metallic tin-can double-crossed me and got rid of me to ensure that he could continue his extraction of energy in peace. But, then I met the people of Gensokyo. The stunning Hakurei and her cute daughter, the eccentric Yukari and of course, you."_

 _Shiki blushed as he said it but her heart ached as well, full knowing where his heart truly lies._

 _Then, he turned his back towards her and went out to her garden._

 _"_ _However, I have also come to realise that such a life was never meant for me."_

 _"_ _Eh? What do you mean?", she asked, her tone one of concern._

 _He clenched his fists tight and walked towards her, his combat boots clacking in rhythm on the garden stone path. The wind blew a gentle breeze, contrasting with the ominous grey skies above._

 _"_ _Shikieiki, the place I came from, it was infested with monstrous demons. Creatures that know obey no law but their own and commit countless atrocities. Skeletons that rained death from above, brutish muscular freaks with pale white skin replacing where a face should be and grotesque beasts that would fire balls of plasma to reduce victims to ash. But the worst of the demons did not come from Hell. No, they were none other than humans themselves. There were those whose weak brilliant minds bowed to the will of the Icon of Sin and there were those who sought to harness the power the bowels of Hell possess, full knowing of the risk it brings. My mind is one that is equally as horrifying as the demons that I have spent eons slaughtering yet it still could not comprehend the betrayal of one of my own that led to Hell's integration of my home world. Shiki, this place, Gensokyo, is a beautiful tranquil land but I have a hunch that they are coming. These hell spawn will spare no one and will attempt to bring Gensokyo under Hell's rule. It would be a shame to see Gensokyo fall to ruin."_

 _She was left speechless by the gravity of the revelation that he gave. Questions were about to escape her lips but she did not let them out as she felt his rough hands being placed on her shoulders, his cold but determined gaze staring down at her._

 _"_ _Shiki," he continued. "When that time does come and when chaos of unprecedented scale arrives, put that souvenir to good use. I know that there is a demon that lies within you."_

 _Her eyes went wide with shock. She was certain that only the Hakurei miko knew of her past in Hope Town. Shock turned to fear when the tower of a man began to chuckle._

 _"_ _I have lived long enough to know whether the inner madness within people have turned into 'demons' or simmered down to harmless bouts of insanity. You, the Hakurei and I all have our 'demons'. The only difference, Shikieiki, is that she and I have embraced ours. It takes a monster to kill a monster and I am the one that they see in their nightmares."_

 _He then let go and moved towards the front door. As he was about to leave, he looked at her for one last time. A maniacal grin was etched in his face, a face that Shikieiki will never forget._

 _"_ _I will be looking forward to witness the carnage of your doing, Yama."_

"But how am I supposed to do that?", she asked to no one in particular in the empty hallway. The rush she felt from pulling off her dramatic exit from the room had long drained. She felt uneasy. Although she knew that her exit was an act to keep Komachi from doing anything rash, she could not deny the primal excitement she felt at the thought of killing. It was wrong. As the Judge of Paradise, she should be appalled at the idea of taking the life of another as it was not her duty to do so. The law was absolute and it meant that she was not exempt. She knew this all too well.

But, her inner voice was telling her that she had every right to play the role of executioner. It would remind her that she had a mirror that could see the past deeds of a soul and a rod that would be heavy or light based on the weight of the soul's sins. Therefore, it would then conclude, she could increase her work efficiency by simply going out and send the guilty straight to Hell as she had the means to confirm their crimes. Hope Town was the best example of a job well done.

Her forehead creased as her talk with that man kept on replaying in her mind like a broken record. That memory began popping up in her head the moment she pulled the trigger to save Komachi's life.

 _'_ _Damn bastard...',_ she thought to herself. She could feel herself gradually agreeing with him the more the memory played back. Were his words true? Did she really have it in her the whole time or was it a product of Hope Town?

Before she could contemplate any further, she bumped into something solid. She rubbed her forehead, cursing herself for being so lost in thought that she was not even looking where she walked. However, she noticed that the wall she bumped into was red and had a bit of a bounce to it when her head hit it. To her knowledge, walls do not growl either when hit.

Taking a deep breath, she looked up only to have slimy drool fall on her face. She nonchalantly wiped the slobber off to find that it was coming from a wide mouth with rows of sharp teeth looking down on her. It had no eyes and only white skin in place of a face. It was muscular and was a tall brute by the looks of it.

Hell Knight.

"Hi."

* * *

He scanned the area for any sign of stragglers. His bright yellow eyes and sharp elvish ears gave him a menacing look, remnants of his former weaker self. The faint sound of crunching footsteps in the distance made his ears twitch in delight. A humanoid demon of impressive height, Jager could not help but grin at the thought of there being survivors in this trashed place.

He remembered the orders given to him by one of the Mastermind's generals and scoffed at them. _'Bring your entire squad,'_ was what the general told him to do upon being assigned the task. How dare the general think so low of him that he needed that many demons to kill off a bunch of stragglers. Thus, he intentionally brought only fifty Hell Knights instead of the full set that was four times the amount and even this amount he felt was overkill for a few people. He was confident in this new body bestowed upon him by the Mastermind and he was aching to try it out.

However, he was feeling a bit generous today so he sent out a Hell Knight to deal with this foolish weakling that dared oppose Hell's might. Let his beasts have a bit of fun once in a while. The desperate screams might prove to be entertaining too. He could imagine the survivors' faces contorted in fear as their feeble efforts of escape led them to their deaths. How wondrous it would be...

Then, he heard a loud roar from down the main hallway. Since he and the rest of his demons were standing by in the reception area, Jager could not see what was going on. He assumed that the beast must have found a survivor and went to sit by the reception desk that happened to be placed on the side of the hallway entrance. There was no need for him to indulge in childish pleasures. He reckoned that it would take it five seconds to bring back the dead body.

So, he counted.

 _One.  
_ He could feel the vibrations from the beast's heavy footsteps moving in pursuit. The growing volume of the roar meant that it was coming this way. Excellent. The sooner it kills it the better.

 _Two.  
_ Shots were heard being fired. From his own experience, that must be a shotgun. No matter. It would take more than a few shots to bring down a Hell Knight. How cute.

 _Three.  
_ Both the beast and its prey are getting closer. Something is not right. Prey should be dead by now. Does it plan to share the prey with the rest of its brethren?

 _Four.  
_ A bright flash was seen in the hallway. It was so bright that even he could see it despite sitting by the reception desk. Considering that the only things he could see from here were his Hell Knights, rows of empty chairs and a pamphlet rack, it must have been intense.

 _Five.  
_ The shotgun blast was heard again followed immediately by a sound that could only be described as a watermelon being smashed to bits. The headless body of the Hell Knight he sent came sliding into reception and stopped right in front of his division's feet.

 _Shit._

Before anyone could register what just happened, a silhouette zipped in between the ranks of the Hell Knights and six heads exploded in rapid succession. As though that was not enough, the limbs of the dead Hell Knights were blown off as well. For the first time in his life, Jager was surprised, impressed and utterly infuriated at the same time.

In a fit of rage, he leaped from the desk into the group of stunned Hell Knights and roared at the top of lungs, "KILL IT NOW!"

"Okay," replied a feminine voice from behind.

"Huh-?!", he blurted as he turned around only to scream in pain as he felt his knees being blasted into mush by a hail of white-hot steel pellets. He never got to yell the unbearable agony away either as he was met with a faceful of boot two seconds in.

Whoever his tormentor was seemed to have a fiery hatred for demon-kind as he was dragged off to the reception desk and had his magnificent legs thrown in front of him in disgust. His legion of Hell Knights was growling and roaring but remained in position. Their cowardice filled him with rage once more.

"What are you doing?!", he screamed. "Don't just stand there, do something!"

"Well, well, well," mocked the woman kneeling beside him. "Looks like they do behave like people after all; useless without a functioning head."

He watched as she got up, pointing her shotgun at him. He smirked at her act of defiance.

"You fool," he hissed. "If you kill me now, they will not hesitate to prey upon you the first chance they get! Not even that toy of yours will save you then!"

"Really?", she haughtily replied. "Let's test that theory of yours, shall we?"

As soon as she finished her sentence, she dashed towards his Hell Knights and leaped over them, blasting several heads off in mid-air. She landed right in the middle of the horde and knelt on one knee. Propping up her old Remington with a devilish smirk, she opened fire on the Hell Knights' knees. The Hell Knights unlucky enough to be close to her roared in sheer pain as their kneecaps were blown off, music to her ears. Those that were smart enough to duck had the honour of having either their arms or head to be separated from their bodies. Those even smarter to attack her while she reloaded had their skulls swiftly bashed in by the rear end of a shotgun.

One by one, the once intimidating regiment of fifty Hell Knights were reduced to a writhing, groaning mess. She stood up, covered in spattered blood and sinews, shoved her shotgun barrel into the mouth of a surviving Hell Knight close to her and slowly pivoted her shotgun downward. The more she pivoted it, the lower the Hell Knight's jaw went. Its low whimpers of suffering quickly became loud agonised shrieks as its cheeks started to tear until its lower jaw snapped off. Then, in an act that can only be described as a mercy kill, she pulled the shotgun out of its mouth and decimated its head.

She then proceeded walk towards Jager, shooting the heads of the Hell Knights that lay on the on the blood-soaked floor as she moved. Dead or alive, it did not matter. She shot them all. There were a few that still had the strength to try and maul her with their strong arms but their retaliation only meant that they had the privilege of having their bodies blasted to a pulp.

Jager said nothing as he watched her stride towards him on the remains of his small army. Once she reached him, she jabbed his chest with her shotgun with a smug grin.

"Any last words, demon?"

"Of course," he replied with a sinister smile, chuckling. "DIE!"

In an instant, she was flung into the wall on the other side of the room. She winced in pain as she got up only to find the demon before her standing tall.

"Fool!", he yelled. "Did you really think you have bested me?!"

He stomped the ground hard, unleashing a fierce orange aura surrounding him. He then shot lasers from his fingertips, laughing as she dodged all of them.

"I have to commend you for even incapacitating me in the first place. Not that many insects come close to beating me, Jager, commander of the Extermination Unit. You managed to take out my small army of beasts as well," he said with his arms crossed.

"But!" he exclaimed. "You have made the grave mistake of returning my legs to me and not finishing me off while you had the chance!"

He began to hover towards her and summoned small fireballs to circle him as a shield.

"Prepare yourself to feel the might of Jager!"

Each fireball circling him began to fire a stream of plasma, moving around like a merry-go-round of death. He then added his own fingertip lasers to mix to maximise his chances of killing her. He watched as she weaved between the plasma streams and lasers, shooting each time an opening presented itself. However, his aura proved too strong for her shots to penetrate.

"Useless, useless, useless!", he yelled with glee. "My aura is impenetrable! Unlike the other commanders who rely on their natural aura, I have augmented mine with countless souls that I have consumed! There is no way that you can defeat me!"

"Is that so?", she replied from behind the cover of the reception desk. "Looks like I have no other choice then."

A bright flash burst from the desk, blinding Jager for brief second. When he regained his vision, he saw her roll out from cover and run straight towards him, shotgun at the ready.

Jager sighed and shot her a condescending glare.

"Really now? Silly girl, you never learn do you-?!"

Before he could finish that sentence, he got cut off with the sudden detachment of his right arm from his shoulder.

"Arggh!", he growled, kneeling as he nursed his stump of an arm. In doing so, his fireball shield and aura faded away. Hearing her footsteps coming closer, he snapped his head towards her.

"H-how? How could this be?! My aura should be impenetrable! You little bitch!", he snapped. It was then that he noticed that her shotgun now looked very different. Instead of the usual dull colour scheme most weapons he saw had, her shotgun was now sporting a jet-black barrel and a pearl-white pump and stock. On the barrel the phrase, ' _Judge, Jury and Executioner',_ was engraved in white and italicised.

"Wait, this wasn't the same weapon you used on my Hell Knights! How did you-!"

"Hush now, Jager," she clicked. "I judge souls for a living. Your biggest mistake was blabbering about what you did with your aura."

His eyes grew wide and swear began to form on his forehead.

"H-hold on now...", he stammered, his arrogant look now one of fear. "You're the judge everyone in my neighbourhood always talks about, right? The one who always lectures people on how they should live? If you kill me, then your reputation would be damaged am I correct?"

His smug grin returned when she remained silent for moment but quickly fell when she smiled instead.

"And you must be a resident of Gensokyo, am I correct?", she interrogated him. "Then you should know of my Rod of Remorse and how it works. I don't even need to use my mirror to know that you have committed countless sins, including the betrayal of your own people, to sentence you to life in Hell. Actual Hell. You lived your life knowing that no one will dare oppose you even before your hideous transformation. Therefore, if no one will judge you, I will judge you myself!"

She placed the tip of the shotgun's barrel against his forehead and pumped the shotgun furiously.

"Fix the hole in the shutter," she ordered

"What?"

"FIX IT!"

"Okay, okay! Please, just don't shoot me!"

He got up and limped over to the hole where he first came in. With what little strength and energy he had, he strained to bend the warped metal into shape and weld it shut. Exhausted, he limped back to her and slumped down on his knees.

"Hey, Jager", she called out.

"What?", he answered, realising too late that the shotgun was pointed back at his forehead.

"You already know first-hand how much a shotgun hurts on its own. So, have a free taste of what a shotgun imbued with the Rod of Remorse's properties feels, okay?"

"Nonononono! Please! NO-!"

 _BLAM!_

Jager's headless body slumped to the floor, landing in front of her feet. She scoffed at it and turned away, making her way back to Komachi.

The demon problem was now settled. The commander's head was now modern art on the wall. But, there was one thing that stuck in her mind after her battle: _'What on earth was that reception desk made of?! It blocked plasma like it was nothing! I should get to know this facility's supplier...'_


	11. Deceptive and Decisive Meetings

The hum of a fluorescent light on the ceiling accompanies the quiet silence of The Office. The Office, the place where the head of the Yagokoro Medical Facility called her working space, looked no different now than it did before the chaos struck. Despite being called The Office, it is actually an entire floor dedicated to the administration of the facility equipped with her very own office within it. Her personal workspace desk and chair seemed like they had not moved an inch. The large oval conference table with a hologram projector in its centre that was the object of awe to many a visitor remained intact. The only difference was that the once brightly lit chamber where she held her meetings with all heads of staff was now illuminated by a single flickering fluorescent light that dangled over the conference table.

The Office, being the top floor of the medical facility's main building, was situated at an elevation high enough to provide a clear view of the blue spire of energy from the power plant and the rest of the facility through its wide windows. Shuttle tracks could be seen connecting the main building to other parts of the city including the power plant. The shuttle network was deemed necessary to connect it to its other branches throughout the city as it was the Underground's sole provider of healthcare after the Yagokoro Medical Facility bought over all its competitors within the region to expand its already immense size, officially making it one of Gensokyo's largest firms.

Sitting by the grand conference table where Eirin would chair important meetings, were five figures under the dim fluorescent light: a tall cyborg, two shrine maidens, a magician and Eirin herself, slumped unconscious in her usual seat. And one of the five members was beginning to feel a little antsy.

"I'm bored~"

Reimu said nothing as she stared into nothingness with her head propped on one arm. Sanae was fiddling with her hair, running her fingers through several locks of it until she dozed off. Eirin was definitely not responding and the tall cyborg known as Dr Samuel Hayden remained silent, the artificial sound of breathing being the only indication that he was awake.

Marisa felt annoyance creeping to her.

"Guys~ I'm boreed.."

With an equally bored tilt, Reimu turned to face her.

"Oi, we get it. What's your point?"

Marisa suddenly got up and slammed the table hard, shocking Sanae awake. Seeing that it was just Marisa, she nuzzled her head in her arms again,

"I'm bored, you're bored, this whole thing is so goddamn boring!", she exclaimed as she pointed an accusatory finger to everyone before stopping at the unconscious Eirin. "Why the hell are we waiting for her to wake up? The world is ending around us, buildings burning, people dying and yet we're wasting our time on this?! Give me a break, will'ya!"

Reimu checked the clock that hung on the wall. 30 minutes had passed. "Isn't this a break, Marisa?"

"And YOU!", she yelled at the cyborg, pretending she had not heard Reimu's snide remark. "You said she'd be awake any moment now! Well? We're still waiting here!"

"As I stated earlier, that was merely an estimation," Hayden replied in a sigh. "I did not expect the medication to be this effective at knocking her out. Besides, you need to remember that it is she that holds the information to the Scroll. Therefore, we must wait until she comes to."

Reimu stretched her arms lazily and yawned. "Umm, remind me again why you knocked out the only person who could help us find the Scroll in the first place? Doesn't seem too productive."

"Yeah, what gives?", added Marisa, crossing her arms in a huff.

The cyborg sighed while rubbing his non-existent temples. "As I have told you for the tenth time now, it was done at her behest. Her reasons for doing so are unclear to me but I can assume that she did this for own safety considering that she has been unconscious for three days. Today being the third day."

Reimu's brows raised in interest. The plot had thickened. "Wait, you mean-?"

"Yes, it is exactly as I say it is, maiden of Hakurei," he answered, anticipating Reimu's inquiry. "And she made it clear that she wanted to-."

"Guys, how long have I been asleep?", a drowsy Sanae butted in as she rubbed her eyes.

Without looking at her, Reimu replied, "It's been 25 years, Sanae." Her tone made it clear that she was not amused.

She then sat up straight and slung her arm around Sanae's shoulders. "So, uh... you had a nice nap? Feel awake and refreshed?"

Flicking stray strands of hair away from her face, she replied with a cheerful "Yeah!" and a gleaming smile that failed to bring up the spirits of anyone in the room. The half-awake expression she had certainly was not helping.

"So," she continued in ignorant bliss, "Did I miss anything important?"

"Nope, you didn't miss anything at all."

"Cool! I'm glad I got some rest. It's been a long day and now I feel alive!"

 _Whap!_

It was then that Sanae felt a strong grip on her head.

"Eh?"

She saw that the arm the hand gripping her head tight belonged to the person sitting on her right. Said person was also sporting a smile that made her regret anything she did, whatever it was.

"Oh really? I feel so happy for you, Sanae. No, really, I do," Reimu continued, her grip tightening with such intensity that Sanae was begging her to let go. "We've through a lot so I understand that you were so tired to begin with. However, the good doctor here was just about to let us in on some very important information. But, someone just _had_ to interrupt him when he was getting to the good part."

Her face went cold as she began to stammer. "O-oh... I am s-so sorry Rei, please don't-!"

Pulling Sanae's head back, she leaned in close to her face.

"Now, do you understand what you just did?", she whispered into her ear.

"Yes, yes, yes! Please just let go of my head already, please!", whimpered Sanae with her hands struggling to get Reimu's hand off her.

"Good." Reimu then slammed Sanae's head on the table hard. "Now go back to sleep and think about what you've done."

Holding her head in pain, Sanae replied with a weak "O-okay" and tenderly rubbed her sore forehead.

Marisa only sighed at the display before her. Some things would never change even in dire times. She swore that being surrounded by enemies left, right and centre would be better than going up against an irritated Reimu. Tapping the table with her knuckle, she motioned to the cybernetic doctor. "So, Doc, you were saying something?"

"Ah, yes, I was," came the low hum reply as Hayden tapped the table with a long metal finger. The metallic taps snapped all conscious participants to attention, much to his convenience.

"As I was saying, it was Dr Yagokoro herself who requested to be sedated to protect the information that she holds. Before I continue, I will address any lingering questions about my origins by saying that yes, I come from a world different from yours and no, I am not a creation of Hell-I was stationed on Mars and I was once a renowned human doctor on Earth before I became the cyborg you see now. Accidents happen."

"Tsk," clicked Reimu as she cursed Hayden for pre-empting her question. "Smartass..."

"I arrived in Gensokyo weeks before the power plant's completion. She personally greeted me upon arrival and took me to her medical facility. I must say that I was impressed by the technology and other fascinating unknown lifeforms around me as it was the first time I have seen intelligent beings that were not human. However, what intrigued me was how she knew I was coming. Unlike the Doom Marine's banishment here, I came here voluntarily long after he came. No one should ever know of that information."

"So that means-!"

"Yes," he replied while casually turning on the hologram on the table to reveal a virtual database of the facility's documentation of Hell. "The influential people of this facility and the power plant have known about _this_ Hell's existence for quite some time."

Pictures, videos, research papers-just about most of the information that he had spent the past few decades on Mars gathering could be seen on the wide blue hologram. They appear to be the result of their own expeditions to Hell as the dates on most of them show that they were documented years after his initial discoveries. The girls were bewildered by this new barrage of info. Marisa, who believed that the catastrophe happening in the Underground was the fault of mysterious outsiders due to the red file she found earlier, was beginning to think otherwise.

"Not only that, but it appears that they have made some findings that even I have overlooked," he muttered, his large cybernetic hand touching a file labelled 'TESTAMENTS'.

Reimu began to feel her head pound again as a set of stone tablets and ancient scrolls were flung into display on the hologram. The visions, the images that crashed into her mind a while ago were coming back in full force as her veins were swelling around her forehead.

"Karma is a bitch, ain't it, Rei?", mocked Sanae with a smug grin.

"S-shut up! Argh!"

"Oh? It appears that you have a connection with the Testaments, I see." Hayden's vertical 'eye' glowed as he turned to the suffering shrine maiden. "Tell me, what do you see when an artefact is presented?"

Reimu strained to lift her head to look at him, her face contorted in pain. "S-suffering...blood everywhere...c-c-corpses piled on more corpses and a barren red desert and... a sarcophagus."

Hayden suddenly froze still, not even a single servo whirred. A moment of silence passed. The images on the hologram were floating idly. Reimu and her friends were sure that he had shut-down for a while before they heard him 'breathing' again.

"A sarcophagus...you say?", he uttered in a low soft whisper.

"...Yeah, a sarcophagus." Reimu swallowed back the pain in her head to look at him straight in his face. She flicked away the images on the hologram and wiped the sweat that formed on her brow earlier. "What about it?"

Hayden said nothing. He turned to the hologram again and brought up an image of an open sarcophagus. The sarcophagus, which appeared to be made of solid rock, was scribbled with what was presumably incantations in an alien language. The inside of the stone sarcophagus revealed an indentation of an armoured suit of sorts. An armoured suit that someone swore she had seen before.

A dull pain was resurfacing. Reimu massaged her head gently as she struggled to recall the memory that was attempting to resurface like a chained beach ball at the bottom of the ocean. Hayden, being the sharp doctor he was, noticed this.

"I see that you have come across this before."

She could feel that the chain was being pulled. There was an undeniable familiarity that she felt upon seeing the image. Was it dejavu? Was it a repressed memory? Or was it another image conjured up by the mysterious voice that she had heard a while ago?

"I... I don't know really," she replied. "But, I cannot help but feel that I've seen it somewhere."

"Same here," added Marisa. "I might not know what the hell this is but I darn sure have this gut feeling that we have seen it too. Ain't that right, Sanae?"

Sanae, going with the flow of things, nodded her head furiously. Unfortunately for her, she overdid it and hit the table.

"So, it is not only the Hakurei that has been affected, it seems." The girls were puzzled by his statement. Before they could say anything, however, he had already stood up and brought forward another image.

This new image was that of another open sarcophagus. However, unlike the previous one shown, this one appeared to be recent as it lacked the signs of wear-and-tear by the elements. On the inside, it became clear that its resident was that of a woman with long flowing hair based on the indentation within. Beside it were a set of two smaller indentations that looked exactly like a pair of battle gauntlets. A pair of very familiar gauntlets, to be precise.

The dull pain grew stronger the more Reimu tried to look deeper into her memories. The gauntlets sparked something within her. A feeling of pride and joy. A feeling of unknown sadness and grief. While the indentation of the gauntlets did not tell much, the indentation of the owner beside it made it as clear as day as to who they belonged to. The long hair, the impressive height and the slight indication of combat boots by its feet, Reimu's eyes shot wide upon making the realisation.

"Is that-!"

Gas suddenly hissed out from the table into the girls' faces, knocking them out one by one. She began to feel fatigued. Everything around her was blurry. Her consciousness fading fast, she desperately tried to picture the person that lay in that sarcophagus before slumping to the floor. The person who she yearned to see her beautiful smile after a long twenty years of her absence.

"...m-my...mother..."

Her ears ringing as she lay, she heard the sound of metal clunking towards her. Her body shaking as she tried to resist the enveloping darkness, she glared towards the towering cyborg. "W-Why...?", she growled, her arms weakly dragging her across the floor. "Why...are you...doing this?"

A light blue 'eye' stared as she resisted the effects of the gas in vain. Turning his back on her, Hayden let out a deep sigh.

"It seems that your memories have begun to restore themselves. No, reappear. She had the right hunch after all. Never knew one could be so sharp."

The orange light from the burning city below illuminated the room, casting a shadow on Reimu's limp body. Hearing that her breathing has relaxed, the tall cyborg walked over to the window overseeing the destruction.

"I am sorry for doing this to you but it must be done. You and your friends are required to resolve this issue but I'm afraid here is not place to be. Say hello to your mother for me... Reimu."

The embers flew in the air like cherry blossom petals in spring, circling the bright blue spire without care. It was a beautiful scene, this chaos, as it was almost like watching a surreal natural phenomenon that rarely occurs. Even the flying monstrous blobs and hovering skeletons that guarded the air above the power plant were like a twisted version of the typical flock of birds that flew off into the sunset. The cyborg had not moved from the window, his 'eye' fixated on the scene before him.

"Come out of the shadows," he suddenly beckoned. "I know you're there."

"Hmph! You're as sharp as ever, Hayden," replied a feminine voice. The sound of stilettos clacking could be heard approaching step by step. Entering the light, the clacking stopped abruptly followed by the sound of something being dragged away. The voice then giggled in a sly manner. "Or should I say, Brain of the Moon, Yagokoro Eirin?"

"Heh, you're not too bad yourself, Yakumo Yukari," the cyborg replied now facing the blonde woman. "You had the right hunch after all. How are things on your end?"

"Do you know you sound creepy in that ominous robotic voice?", she quipped. "Anyway, the key players needed have now arrived at the scene exactly at the right time. The portals have now been closed."

"Is that so? Well, then we don't much to worry about then."

As soon as she said that, both Hayden's and Eirin's bodies fizzled and disappeared as though they were digital projections. A beat of silence came but it was interrupted by the clacking of footsteps. Yukari looked behind her to see that the person she was talking to was already behind her.

She let out a small whistle. "Wow, impressive piece of tech you got your hands on, Eirin."

"Not really. Hologram projectors have been able to produce life-like projections for quite some time now. You're just behind in the times." Flicking her braid off her shoulder, she walked up to Yukari.

Yukari simply smirked. "And you're still a smartass."

The two women shared a good laugh before moving towards the window together.

"I've already teleported the girls to the power plant. They should be in the care of the insider by now," said Yukari as she stared at the energy spire with a grave expression.

"I hope so," Eirin responded with a similar face. It was a risky move. While Yukari had approached the insider in the day before, both knew there was always a chance that the insider might have long been compromised.

"Well, no point worrying now," she declared after a momentary pause. "They've made it this far. Only way to find out is when we meet up with the insider as we had planned. Then, we can begin briefing them."

"Heh," grunted Yukari. "You're right. It will take a lot of effort to bring them down."

She then turned around and checked her wristwatch. "That's odd. It's not like her to be late."

Right on cue, the sound of elevator doors opening was heard followed by that of approaching footsteps. Upon seeing their late arrivals, Eirin and Yukari let out a sly smirk with the former pushing her glasses up for added effect.

"Sorry I'm late," the visitor half-heartedly apologised while pointing to the person by her side. "Had to pick up Komachi and ran into some trouble on the way."

"It's alright, Shiki," Yukari replied. "What matters is that you turned up."

"That's true," added Eirin. "Now that we're all here, it is now time to bring this plan to fruition."

Eirin, Yukari, Shiki and Komachi exchanged glances with each other. Each of their faces showed a strong will and determination to achieve their common goal.

With her eyes burning with hope and her face bearing a confident grin, Yukari made a declaration that fuelled the flames in the hearts of everyone present: "Let's go and save _her,_ our old friend!"

* * *

It was dark. Everything around him was dark. He felt a dull pain in his head. He was knocked out cold. Judging by his surroundings, he was in an observatory lab of sorts as he saw that one of the walls was a clear glass window. He tried punching it to no avail. The glass was more than bulletproof. He should know-his mechanical body granted him the strength to punch through a thick sheet of metal. Whatever this glass was made of, it was certainly tougher than that. He made a mental note to research the chemical makeup of the glass once he found a way out. Speaking of exits, there was only one but it could only be opened from the outside. There was a key-card reader but he could not find any. Calling for help was out of the question too as the window revealed that the whole floor was empty. The lighting was disabled which meant that his 'eye' was the only source of light he had.

He tried to remember the events that led to his current predicament. He opened a portal back on Mars to travel to this unknown dimension where he detected readings of Argent Energy being present to investigate it. Then he recalled appearing in an office room before a peculiar white haired woman who introduced herself as Eirin. As he tried to fathom how anyone could anticipate his coming, the woman told him not to worry. The next thing he knew was that her fist was slamming straight into his face.

Snapping out of his flashback, he noticed a note stuck on his arm. It read, " _Thanks for sharing info with me~! Use the card attached to this note to escape!"_

Sure enough, there was a card.

"Well played, Eirin. Well played."


	12. Revelations

The energy spire- a column of energy of unknown origin that looked similar to a laser shooting out from the centre of the power plant to the receiver placed on the absurdly high ceiling of the enormous underground cave formation that was Former Hell (now called the Underground). Like moths hovering a bright light at night, floating grotesque blobs of one-eyed flesh and jetpack-wearing giant skeletons circle the spire accompanied by flying burning skulls as though they were the spire's guardians.

At the base of the spire, the shiny metallic finish of the panels and walls of the observation deck and main control room was now tarnished by a horrid layer of writhing flesh. Demons of all kinds roamed the floors and hallways where scientists and engineers once dwelled. One demon in particular was headed for the CEO's office. Its two tails swished side by side as it strolled along towards a map of the facility that was on display in the middle of the observation deck.

"Oh my, I knew this place was big but really?", it muttered in playful disbelief. It reached into its lab pocket and brought out a device resembling a smartphone. It then placed the device on the side of the projector displaying the map for a few seconds before leaving the area.

It checked the screen of the device. Map download complete. With a smirk, it strolled along the bloodied hallway that connected the observation deck to the rest of the facility. Ground zero, as it liked to call it. Reaching an elevator, it pressed the button that would take it to the 4th floor.

As it exited the elevator, it heard a wail of agony followed by the familiar sound of crunching bone. ' _Survivors?',_ it thought. ' _Makes sense, given the size of this place. This was even larger than the last place I worked at.'_

Its heart now filled with a pleasant feeling after it had come across some unexpected entertainment, it was not long before it found itself in front of the door to the CEO's office. It took a moment to appreciate the material the door was made of. Giving the door a few light knocks, it could discern that it was not made of mahogany despite its similar texture. However, it was a type of wood it had not come across before as the door was incredibly dense, which meant that it could withstand even a direct hit with a rocket launcher.

Its eyes perked up with slight interest but the muffled sound of chains rattling on the inside won it over and it opened the door with a slow long creak.

The office within was dark but the light seeping in from the opening door showed a hectic mess. Signs of struggle, evidence of the resistance of the occupant within before it was eventually subdued by its captors were everywhere. Files and folders were strewn about on the floor of the wrecked office adorned by shrapnel from the work desk that was smashed in two in the centre.

As the door opened wider and as the light swallowed more of the darkness, a limp figure with dishevelled short hair could be seen with both her hands chained to the wall behind the broken table. A plate of uneaten stale bread and a glass of murky water lay by her bruised feet. Sensing that the light was bothering her eyes, the figure winced in discomfort as she slowly looked up to see her visitor. A red tennis-ball sized eyeball that hung over her breast-pocket attached by two tendrils that connected into her body and head squinted as well. Due to being confined to the dark for a week, it took a while for the figure to recognise the demon that stood in front of her.

When the blurriness in her eyes gave way, her expression immediately grew dark in anger and disgust. " _You!"_

The demon cackled in response. "Yes, it is I."

Its two tails wiggling with glee, the demon crossed its arms and loomed over her.

"You seem to be tired. How can I help you, _Master_ Satori?"

"Don't you _dare_ refer to me by that name and title!", Satori snapped. Her purple eyes glared straight into demon's own with seething anger.

"Aw, but isn't that what that sweet little kitty always calls you?", it taunted. "Besides, the cat that you see before you is no longer your beloved Orin."

Then, the demon's expression softened, its' eyes changing into that of a familiar shade of red and gleam of innocence.

"N-n-no…!", stammered Satori. Her eyes and mouth wide open upon seeing Orin, the true Orin, before her.

"M-m-master?", she asked meekly, on the verge of breaking to tears. "I'm s-s-s-sorry for this. It's not my fault, I swear! I never wanted to chain you to the wall or murder Parsee but I cannot do anything about it. I see everything I do, feel everything I do, but I cannot control my body! It's like I'm trapped in my own head and someone else is using my voice."

"Orin!", cried Satori barely registering what she said, her tears flowing into her smile. "I knew it! I knew you were still in there somewhere! Everyone kept telling me that working in the Hell Energy core had driven you to madness but I knew it wasn't true!"

Orin, unable to hold it back any longer, burst into tears as she embraced her beloved master whose torture by her own hand she had to witness.

"It's okay, Orin," Satori assured. "I understand. I have already forgiven you with all my heart."

Wiping the tears off Orin's wet eyes, she added with a gentle smile, "Now, why don't you stop crying? Tears don't suit your face much the same way a smile would."

Orin's cheeks flushed pink. Her ears burning with embarrassment by the words they heard.

Shaking her head to calm herself, she looked up towards Satori's gaze and smiled.

"Why y-yes! Of c-c-course, Master Satori!"

Suddenly, she doubled over and clutched her head in agony.

"Orin!"

"It's here!", cried Orin. "It's trying to wrestle my body back from me!"

She then snatched a nearby shard of broken wood from the wrecked table and swung it to her head. However, the invading conscience had already gained significant control over her body, forcing her to push her hand closer with her remaining one to stab herself.

"I'm sorry, Master Satori, but there's only one way for me to end this!", she declared as she struggled to bring the shard to her head.

"No!", Satori protested. "I won't let you!"

She lunged towards her but the chains on the shackles on her hands and feet were too short, thus flinging her to the floor by Orin's feet. Undeterred, she snapped back up and attempted to push forward towards her suffering pet. The chains creaked and groaned under the tension she was subjecting them to. The bolted base of those chains, however, showed no such signs. No matter how hard she strained her arms, no matter how hard she pulled her legs, the chains would not break.

"S-Satori!"

"Shut up!"

"I can no longer properly control myself," Orin stated in a sorrowful tone. As she said that, the shard that she had desperately tried to drive into her skull fell from her hand. Satori stopped struggling and stared with despair.

"See? It has wrested control over my arms and dropped the shard."

Afraid of what this sinister conscience might do to Satori, she used her remaining strength to shuffle a few steps back. Satori said nothing.

"Well, this is the least I could do to protect you."

Her eyes then lit up. She had forgotten to share something important with her.

"Satori!", she called out. "The evil possessing me is no demon! It is the vengeful soul of a human that was sealed within the tablet describing the tale of the Spider Mastermind!"

"What?!", exclaimed Satori, her chains clinking as she shot up to her feet.

"Yes, it's true!", she replied. "During my entrapment in my own mind, I saw myself examining the tablet and vowing to never fail this mission again! Whatever 'this mission' was anyway."

"So, the entity possessing you is the Spider Mastermind?"

"Yes! And this entity's true name is-ARGH!"

"Orin!", cried Satori as she watched her abruptly drop to the ground, clutch her head and convulse.

She felt powerless. Her pet, no, family was suffering before her and she could do nothing but watch Orin get replaced once more by the tormentor that kept her in this ruined office.

Then, the convulsing stopped. Orin coughed up blood and gradually got up to her feet. However, once she turned around, Satori could see that the innocent red in her eyes was no more. In its place, a bloodthirsty amber.

"Aw, did I ruin a moment you were having?", the demon gloated. "Such a shame. Oh well, it was entertaining while it lasted."

Satori dropped to her knees, looking at the ground, silent.

"What's this? Cat got your tongue?", it mocked. "Too bad! Instead of that fragile Orin, the one inhabiting the body of your precious pet is I...!"

"Olivia Pierce."

The demon, annoyed and confused, shot her a look. "Huh?"

"Olivia. Pierce. Your name, is Olivia Pierce." As she said this, Satori wished her glares could kill as her eyes never once blinked nor left the demon's own.

Then, without warning, she swung her head to the side to avoid a high velocity boot to the face. The wall behind her cracked upon impact but she never flinched: her gaze remained still but her mouth formed a smirk.

"You bitch!", the demon howled, her cheery tune all crumpled up. "How did you know?!"

A beat of silence passed. The demon was glaring with fiery amber eyes at the insolent insect beneath it. No one, not even the other demons, knew of her true identity. How can this worthless fool figure it out? It needed to know. It needed a reason to silence both her and whoever it was that leaked this information.

"TELL ME!"

Satori then began to giggle. It was a very soft, barely audible giggle. Then giggles became chuckles. And chuckles gave way to a manic laughing fit.

"You fool," she hissed as her laughter dissipated. "Did you really come here to this place and not know the inhabitants of this land? Here I thought you were a brilliant researcher."

"Tsk...!", it clicked, its annoyance swelling up within.

"What's the matter? Work on Mars not up for you? A real shame. Heard you caused quite a ruckus back where you worked and that got yourself killed. Why? Because you're an idiot. So idiotic you were in your thinking, that you actually thought you could bargain with the Devil or whoever it is to give you a second chance. What a joke. You should've known when you were reborn here as nothing but a spirit. One that was sealed in an ancient artefact. How cliché. Sure, that was the form that allowed you take over my beloved pet's body, but come on. What were the odds that you would even come across such an important figure in the company that you trying to infiltrate? The only thing that helped you was pure luck as you never encountered me until the week before you turned this place into another shithole like Mars. You thought that you were so clever in your _ingenious_ schemes but the mayhem you wrought barely made it to the surface above. The least you could do was be original in your approach. The only thing you've done is destroy the city and owe billions upon billions of yen in damages both to my company and my city. I govern both, so, tough luck. I guess you were just an overambitious idiot after all."

Satori then felt herself be snagged up by the collar of her shirt towards the demon, its hot breath fuming through the gaps between its snarl.

"SHUT UP!", it screamed, spit flying all over Satori's face. "How the hell do you so much about me?! Huh?! What do you know of my plans, huh?! Hayden never understood it, everyone never understood it, so, why should you?! You think your insignificant mind can comprehend the scale, the magnitude, the importance of what I'm about to bring? What I'm doing is for the greater good of all of us! I shall be the one to usher a new age of prosperity!"

"And... what you've done so far is bring in the consequences of insanity." She wiped the spit off her face, her expression now blank. "If we want to bring in semantics, all I have to do is bring up Hayden as his work on Argent Energy and expeditions to Hell were what allowed you to even have these silly delusions to begin with. Sure, you might have taken it a step further by recruiting my workers and transforming them into abominations with those convenient orange glass orbs you keep carrying around but you cannot forget who was truly essential to this madness. That's right. This 'prosperity' you see around you? That wasn't you. That was Hayden."

"Besides, for a researcher, you haven't done much research here, haven't you?", she added snidely.

"Why you fucking bitch...!"

"Madam Orin! We have intruders in the facility!", a raspy voice called out from the hallway behind them.

"Just a moment!", it scolded. It breathed down her neck and threw her down with a thud. "We will discuss this _later."_

It then sped off towards the hallway to address this new problem. Satori, on the hand, stared out the open door with a smug grin. Seeing that the demon was out of sight, she cupped her hands together and brought them to her mouth like a megaphone.

She then yelled at the top of her lungs, "I CAN READ MINDS YOU UNEDUCATED FRAUD!"

Not a soul could be heard wandering the blood-stained hallway outside. She gave herself a little smirk.

"Man, that felt good."

A sigh escaped her lips as she turned to look at a broken picture on the floor. It was a picture that used to sit on her desk facing her, giving her the daily dose of motivation she needed to get through a long day at work. The picture frame was nothing fancy – just a cheap 100-yen wooden frame with a stand that could have been bought anywhere. The picture itself, however, was what made it precious. A rare moment in time when her pets, Orin and Okuu, her younger sister, Koishi and herself were present in their home, the Palace of Earth Spirits.

The picture being the day when Former Hell Solutions was first formed, she was seen giving a small smile dressed in a sharp business suit complete with a brand-new suitcase to go with it. The red necktie she wore matched well with her black blazer and polished leather shoes. Her red third eye blended well with the colour scheme. The backdrop of her entrance hall and wide carpet-covered staircase added a flair of class and grandiose to the photo. Koishi, who found a job befitting her ability to manipulate the subconscious (street magician), did a double-V sign in mid-air beside Satori wearing a baggy shirt and tight-fit jeans with her eyes and mouth wide open. Last, but not least, standing and smiling on either side of the Komeiji siblings were Okuu and Orin. The former, being the nuclear core operator before they made the switch to Argent Energy, sported a shiny orange helmet and a matching orange jumpsuit that could barely contain her chest. The latter, the co-founder and lead researcher for the company, donned a clean white lab-coat complete with the typical pair of pens in her front pocket. Her square-rimmed spectacles highlighted the innocent shade of red of her eyes. With all members of the Komeiji family present, it was a picture that captured the innocent familial ties that they shared.

Turning back to the empty, spotless hallway, Satori thought back to the times when they were simple rookies stumbling their way through the rough terrain of business. While things were tough for the most part, they still had each other. Even after attaining the prestige and status that the fruits of their labour brought, when work consumed the time of the other, Satori, Orin and Okuu would always find the time to have a meal together. As family.

"Orin," she whispered. "Thank you for the info. Your sacrifice will not be in vain."

"Have you noticed anything different yet?"

"Gwah!", yelped Satori, startled by the sudden intrusion of her reminiscing by a soft monotonous voice. She looked around her for any changes in her environment, fearing that the voice had done something to her without her noticing.

 _'Huh, now that I think about it, the hallway used to be a literal bloody mess,'_ she thought. _'Why is it spotless? Where has the blood gone? More importantly, how did I not notice this? I should've been able to sense the presence of whoever did this...'_

"Who are you?", she called out to the dark unlit corner of the office where the voice came from.

"Who I am... does not matter."

The irregular squeaking of worn-out sneakers approached closer to the light, revealing a head of pale green hair and a hand gripping a bloody mop. Her eyes could not see well in the dark but she was certain the eyes on the owner of the voice were wide open complete with a fittingly manic grin.

"More importantly," the voice added. "Would you like to see some... _magic,_ dear sister?"

With a snap of her fingers, the chains that shackled her hands and feet snapped open followed by several loud consecutive booms that rocked the facility.

* * *

 ** _"Do not fear, child, for Salvation is near."_**

 _BOOM!_

She felt the earth beneath her rumble, shaking the ceiling above causing it to trickle dust. _'The voice,'_ she thought. _'It spoke again. Why?'_

Covering her face with one hand, she groaned as she slowly sat up. Damn Hayden. She felt surprisingly refreshed for someone who had been gassed unconscious, something which did not sit right with her. Looking around, she found herself on the floor of a locker room of some sort with rows of lockers to her left and right. Up ahead was a picture of a showerhead on the wall with an arrow pointing to the left. The locker room was connected to the showers. How convenient.

" _Rise_ and _shine~,_ Miss Hakurei. _Rise_ and... _shine._ "

"Kya!", she yelped as she jumped, surprised and terrified by the sudden low ominous whisper beside her ear. Turning around, she saw a familiar face grinning at her as though she were the Cheshire Cat.

"Good morning, Reimu! I didn't know you were so shocked to witness the awesomeness of the Great Mari-*WHAM*...ow..."

"DON'T DO THAT AGAIN!", yelled Reimu, her fist not quite sure whether it wants to leave Marisa's face just yet.

"Ok..." came Marisa's muffled reply. "Point taken. You may stop imprinting your fist on my pretty face any longer now."

"Hmph. Not funny!" she huffed.

"Geez, relax girl," exasperated Marisa. "Besides, it's a joke. Not a dick. Don't take it too hard."

ooo

Moments later, a Marisa-shaped indent in a wall of lockers was found by a newly-awoken Sanae as she walked along the locker room walkway to locate her friends. She later found a roughed-up Marisa not too far ahead. When asked on what happened, she only replied, "Worth it."

"Was it?", Sanae asked. She also noticed the sound of a running shower. She deduced that Reimu was cleaning herself up. It was the logical conclusion she came up with as Reimu was nowhere to be seen.

Marisa nodded with pride and gave her a toothy grin. Reimu, as she noticed a second too late, was seen preparing to give Marisa a karate-chop to the head after appearing like a blur. Turned out she was not in the showers after all. However, the wet tapping of multiple feet coming from the shower room prompted the girls to turn around only to see a fresh cloud of steam covering several figures within.

A sudden swish parted the steam, the purple folds of a parasol flashing through. The dissipating cloud revealed the identity of the parasol wielder: Yukari. And with her were a fully-awake Eirin, Shikieiki and Komachi. All of them, with the sole exception of Shikieiki who sported a rugged leather jacket and white denims, wore their usual day-to-day outfits: Yukari with her white mob cap and signature parasol, Eirin with her standard red-and-blue lab coat and Komachi with her oversized scythe and dress that Reimu was sure was one size too small.

"Hello, girls!", Yukari greeted cheerily. "Good to see you all fresh and ready to go for your mission! Now that we've got the whole gang together, why don't we all have a nice little briefing, eh?"

"A what now?", asked Marisa, baffled.

"It's as I said: a mission," Yukari answered. "You see, we are now in the power plant itself and you girls are instrumental in this operation."

Her eyes leered from side to side as she scanned the room. Her peers were standing by her side as though they were all part of a fabulous all-girl group. All they needed were some ridiculous poses and the group would have looked perfect. The girls in front of her appeared to be less than pleased. Sanae was simply smiling whilst staring into nothing and Marisa was scratching her head in confusion. Reimu, however…

"Firstly," she began, "I would like to apologise on Eirin's behalf for putting you to sleep. The cyborg you were talking to was just a hologram of him mimicking Eirin's movements. Same goes for the 'asleep' Eirin. The real Samuel Hayden is being held in one of the containment labs in the medical facility's underground floor for trespassing. At least, that was the story I was told anyway."

Reimu's clenched fist began to shake. She glared at Yukari with intense anger.

"Going back on track," she continued. "After you girls were knocked out, I teleported all of you to this power plant here. However, I needed to wait for the arrival of the members of the mission so we had an insider planted in there to ensure your safety. Now that we're all here, I'll tell you what this mission is about: saving the previous Hakurei miko."

Reimu's eyes snapped open along with those of her friends (and Komachi, who was actually dragged along for the whole thing). Her mother was alive? How? How did she not know of this? Why did they not share it with her all these years?

 _Did they know what happened to her the entire time?_

The silence in the room was deafening. The air was beginning to feel tense. It was awkward. Uncomfortable even. For anyone in there.

Swinging her parasol to her shoulder she broke the silence.

"I hope that we can answer any questions that you have so far. I'd imagine that you have so many right now."

Twirling her parasol around and setting it down on its tip, she pointed at the red-and-white shrine maiden with her ring finger. "Reimu, would you like to go first?"

 _WHAP!_

"My, my~ such violence," she chided. Her previously free hand shook slightly from catching Reimu's fist lunging straight towards her face. She could feel the rage burning within the shrine maiden from the intensity of the punch she caught.

"Mission?! What mission? Have you any idea just how much trouble we had to get through just to get to safety?!", Reimu yelled. "We were close to _dying_ down here looking for a way to get out of this mess. We even hoped that you would show up and get us out of here. But what did you do? You threw us straight into the heart of it. This isn't jumping out of frying pan and into the fire, this is jumping from said pan and into the damn gas regulator!"

She pushed her fist with more force into Yukari's hand, causing her hand to shake even more. But it would not budge even an inch.

"Knowing you, you and Eirin over there must have planned this whole thing all along! Heck, I wouldn't even be surprised if you knew everything this whole time! That this entire scenario was just one huge contrived plan to eliminate some greater evil and we're just the pawns in this messed up game!"

Yukari said nothing. The expressions of everyone within the room varied from shock to shame. The ones who displayed feelings of shame or a sympathetic understanding were those who conspired with her. Her face, however, told nothing. Her eyes simply narrowed at the fuming girl whose fist was still in her hand.

Marisa, who had been stunned by the sudden outburst, approached her carefully.

"Hey, come on now," she said feebly. "I know that everything is a bit hard to swallow and I understand if you're upset about it. So, why don't we calm down and let her…"

"Shut up."

The command was uttered with blunt force. The tone it carried was not cold nor filled with spite. Instead, it was one of pure fury. And it broke Marisa's heart and the hearts of those who heard it. The sage youkai, however, remained stoic.

"What do _you_ know about me?", she snapped. "Maybe to you this is a mission that is all-important as it involves protecting the very ground we stand on. I also know that you know that I understand that better than anyone else does. It's in my job description, dammit! But you also need to understand that I have lived twenty years of my life believing that my mother was dead. When I asked that woman right there about it, the one who should know better than anyone what happened to her, she simply said she disappeared. Vanished. Spirited away due to unforeseen circumstances in her line of work."

She let out a heavy sigh. Her face was downcast. The strength in her fist began to wane.

"I know. I know. That all you did, you did for the prosperity of Gensokyo. I get it, I respect that. You care for everyone and everything that is under the skies of this world and that is why you do what you do. And as a Hakurei miko, the keeper of peace and protector of the innocent, I will serve you regardless like generations before me. Even when my friends must be involved, I will do it. Because this place is the place where all things dear and horrid to me is born."

She let her fist down, slumping gently to her side.

"To think that all I wanted to do was celebrate a meaningful event with a bunch of friends."

"Well, you still are," a voice reassured.

She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to see Marisa and Sanae smiling.

"If you want, once this is all over, why don't we all gather around your place and have a grand ol' time, ze?", said Marisa.

Her lips formed a small smirk. Her head never turned to face them but they knew she was listening. With narrowed eyes, she answered, "Yeah."

Marisa lit up in elation upon hearing her response. "Yeah! That's what I wanted to hear! Now, why don't we solve this problem the good old-fashioned way like we always do. You and me kicking…!"

"Even so…"

She froze still. The joy she had was pulled back into herself. "...Huh?"

"But even so, no matter how much respect I have for you…"

Marisa noticed that Reimu's hands were clenched again. Her eyes then went wide as she saw a crimson aura manifesting itself around the shrine maiden.

"No matter how long I let my emotions fester to do my job…"

Sanae and Marisa turned around when they heard a familiar voice calling out to Yukari coming from the locker room entrance. There must have been a corridor connecting the locker room to the voice's location as it sounded distant yet close enough to be audible. The voice seemed to be warning Yukari about a someone coming their way.

"No matter how valid how your reasons are…"

Heavy footsteps could now be heard storming towards the locker room. A set of metallic boots approaching at breakneck speed.

"It does not excuse keeping me away from my mother!"

The stoic Yukari jumped back in fear when the shrine maiden lunged towards her. In the blink of an eye, Reimu was already right in front of her. Her heart raced as the look on Reimu's face resembled the one a certain woman wore whenever she teased her a bit too much. The sharp wild eyes, the menacing crimson aura, everything about her was too similar to that woman. She then saw a fist coming her way. She instinctively swung her parasol to block the incoming attack. Time seemed to slow down as she saw the punch reach her before her parasol could.

 _POW!_

She could feel the rush of air that accompanied the loud impact. It was over. She was done for. The moment she opened her eyes, she would see herself be ferried away.

Except she was still there, face unpunched.

She then looked in front of her and knew immediately why her face remained unharmed.

Stopping the furious shrine maiden's fist dead in its tracks was a large, gloved hand that caught it. Unlike Yukari's, the hand never trembled, let alone budge. Reimu, now snapped out of her rage, turned to look at the owner of said hand.

A million memories that she never remembered swarmed her head. Missing pieces of her childhood began to reconstruct themselves. Memories of a stranger who arrived in her life when she was four. Memories of an armoured man who rivalled her mother in strength and ferocity whenever she saw them spar. Memories of a person who left her just when she was about to warm up to him. Those memories all came back like a tidal wave but surprisingly her head felt no pain- they healed it.

Clad in an ancient futuristic metal suit stained with the blood of countless foes, the man who caught her fist with ease was none other than the mythical legend that she thought she only heard in passing.

 ** _"Do not fear the blood, child, for the pain will be over._**

 ** _Rejoice. The Slayer he cometh._**

 ** _And he is never one."_**


	13. Hornet's Nest

Reimu stared into the obscure visor of the armoured man. Any rage or bloodlust she felt had disappeared but her fist remained in place. Everyone around her was staring as well, anticipating with anxiety the next course of events. Yukari, Eirin and Shikieiki stood in wait, knowing full well the mannerisms of the man Hell dubbed the Doom Slayer.

Reimu, while herself a Hakurei, lacked the physical might that her mother had thus making her chances against him very slim. She could use her magic but no one knew how effective it was against the killing machine that fed off the very energy the demons used. She braced herself for any action the armoured man would take.

Without warning, the Slayer let go of Reimu's fist and lightly bumped it with his own. The fist-bump was then followed by him pulling his fist slowly away from hers whilst waggling his fingers dramatically.

It was a move only the people who met him could have expected. The fist-bump, a gesture of friendship and camaraderie usually associated with close friends, appeared to contradict the image of rage incarnate painted in her head. As she stared into his dark visor, she could only manage to utter a single word that perfectly summed up the sea of questions that she had. "What?"

"Good to see you again, soldier," greeted Yukari while waving her hand casually. She, along with Eirin and Shikieiki seemed to treat his gesture as though it were an everyday occurrence. Slinging her parasol over her shoulder, Yukari walked up to him and looked up into his visor. "I take it, those explosions earlier are your doing?"

He shook his head in response, prompting a raised brow from Yukari. She opened her mouth to ask him more questions but an answer came yelling down the corridor accompanied by clumsy hurried clunking.

"Yukari, Yukari! There are explosions all around the facility's perimeter!"

The room they were in rumbled as soon as the notice was given. Everyone turned to look at the figure who was hunched over panting in a green jumpsuit. Her bobbed twin-tails bounced lightly with each breath she took along with her signature rucksack. She then stood up to address Yukari, who was amused by the sight she saw.

"Also…the Slayer has arrived-oh hey! Didn't… see you…there…big guy!"

The Slayer gave her a small salute in response. Reimu, Sanae and Marisa however, had their eyes wide open. The figure, noticing this asked, "What's the matter, guys? You look like y'all seen a ghost or somthin."

"Nitori…is that really you?", asked Marisa, her voice strained and shaky.

Pointing to herself with pride, Nitori announced,"Uhuh, the one and only."

She then found herself on the receiving end of a hard backhand which knocked her down to the floor. Nursing her sore cheek, she looked up to see a fuming teary-eyed Marisa.

"You ASS!", screamed Marisa as she pulled Nitori up by her jumpsuit. "Have you ANY idea how worried you made me?! I searched high and low for you on the day I read about it. Then, I gathered my friends to help me investigate it and find you the next day. You better be glad people like me still remember you!"

"Actually, you brought us to Kisume's bar to watch the grand opening of the power plant and discussed possible theories of how Nitori disappeared", interjected Reimu.

"Yeah! And most of the time, you were the one spouting out nonsensical stories like " _Nitori turned around and got whacked over the head!_ " and then spent hours trying to sell the same story over and over", chimed Sanae full of conviction.

"Shut up!", she retorted with her face red with embarrassment. "It was a few minutes, not hours! Get it right! Besides, it was an interesting detective story that made a lot of sense at the time."

"Pshh, yeah right. When did you ever make sense?", said Reimu.

"HEY!"

"Actually, that's not too far off the truth."

The three girls stopped their bickering and turned to Nitori, who was now standing with a swollen cheek. "Eh?"

"You heard me, it's not that different from your story, Marisa," said Nitori. "It's just that I wasn't kidnapped by the legions of Hell or anything of the sort."

"Wut?", blurted Marisa.

"Girls," Yukari announced as she moved to stand beside Nitori. "Meet the insider, Nitori Kawashiro."

Nitori scratched her head in embarrassment with a little chuckle.

"Yukari knocked me out and told me about her plan when I woke up. Didn't have time to notify anyone 'cause apparently, I was out for an entire day so today was when I first knew what I had to do: bring you guys in and provide updated info on the current situation." Nitori then pulled out a laptop from her rucksack and turned it on to show live surveillance footage, core reactor status and a map of the facility being monitored.

"I guess I do owe some of you an apology, right?"

Marisa sighed as she put her arms up and shook her head in exasperation. She then gave Reimu a nudge with her elbow and glanced at her. Reimu, noticing the glance, gave her a silent nod of approval.

Pulling her hat down, Marisa lunged towards Nitori with a feral smirk and landed a straight punch right in the kappa's cheek. Right before the kappa could be flung full force towards the wall, she caught Nitori's jumpsuit by the collar pulled her back before dropping her to the ground.

Dusting her knuckle, Marisa helped her up and gave her a smile saying, "Apology accepted."

"I'm impressed," said a calm deep voice. "The young Hakurei, like her mother, has surrounded herself with some interesting and energetic friends."

The girls, who were transfixed on Nitori, turned towards the armoured man. "You knew my mother?", blurted Reimu.

The question appeared to catch the Slayer off-guard as Reimu saw him flinch slightly. She also noted that Yukari somehow had a hand in whatever reason that caused him to react that way because she saw him then turn towards the sage youkai and crack his knuckles.

"Indeed I did, little Hakurei, indeed I did," he replied, his visor facing her. "You were only but a small child when I first came here and your mother was the one who took me in at a time when I was distraught, angry and confused by my circumstances."

"I was also the one sending you those sticky notes all over because, under circumstances caused by _Yukari_ here, I had to avoid contacting you directly until your memories were refreshed," he then added after seeing Reimu's mouth open.

"My memories?", Reimu quizzed. "What do you mean-?"

A loud boom and a terrifying rumble shook the room violently, causing everyone to drop on their knees or flat on the ground.

"Nitori!", Yukari called out. "What's the situation out there right now?"

Checking her laptop, which she was relieved to find was still intact, Nitori yelled, "We need to move! The explosions have taken down the shutters of the maintenance hall nearby. I'm detecting a lot of movement both from in and out of the facility!"

Eirin, who was now standing up and dusting herself off, asked, "Is it the work of the ' _guests'_ Yukari brought?"

Nitori, her eyes glued to the screen, replied, "No, none of them are the guests. If anything, they actually look like the residents who live here."

Sanae, Marisa and Reimu, who were already overwhelmed by the info dump of finding out the Slayer's connection to the previous miko and the revelation of Yukari bringing dubious outside 'help', cried out in unison, "Wait, what?!"

 _BOOM!_

"Whoa!", cried Reimu as she fell yet again when another explosion rocked the facility. It was either a larger explosion or a closer one as the vibrations were now strong enough to make dust trickle heavily from the ceiling. Alarms were now blaring and the lights in the room were pulsating in yellow-orange flashes.

She coughed and wheezed but she managed to get herself on her knees. From what she could see, everyone, save for Yukari, Eirin, Shikieiki and the Slayer, were all on the floor struggling to stand.

"This is bad…", muttered Nitori as she got up with her laptop in her hands. Her face turned pale as the number of red dots gathered just outside grew larger by the second. She then punched in a command that brought down a steel shutter to close off the locker room entrance and cried, "The demons…they're here!"

Loud thuds and muffled roars filled the room immediately as the demon horde tried to break down the shutter. Creaks and squeaks soon followed as indentations of claws and fists began to appear on the shutter's surface. Everyone except Yukari, Eirin, Shikieiki and the Slayer looked on horror as the howls of the demons grew louder with every beating it took. They instead glanced at each other and gave a knowing nod. Yukari spun around and swung her parasol to open a portal at the back of the room.

"There's not much time left," Yukari announced to Reimu and her friends. She then motioned to Shikieiki to move towards the girls. Shikieiki gave a confused look but went along without question with Komachi following her. Yukari did the same to Nitori, who also obliged with little complaint.

"Yukari? You're not thinking what I think you're about to do, are you?", asked Reimu, her brows furrowed with worry.

Adjusting her mob cap with her free hand, she gave Reimu a sly smirk.

"Oh Reimu, you know me too well."

She then reached into Eirin's cleavage via portal, pulled out a scroll and threw it at Reimu. Seeing Reimu catch it with ease, she walked up to her and put her free hand on Reimu's shoulder.

"Listen to me, Reimu- _oof!_ "

Yukari found herself looking at the floor after she felt Eirin's karate chop slam into her head, no doubt the result of embarrassment from what she just pulled. Blood seeping down her forehead, she looked back at Reimu with a wistful smile.

"The scroll I've given you is the one you're looking for. In it contains everything you need to know about saving your mother and the current crisis. Nitori will act as your guide and Shiki and Komachi will provide aid to you whenever you need it."

"You could've _asked_ , you know?!", interjected a red-faced Eirin, her free hand buttoning up her exposed chest area.

"Oh, and one more thing," added Yukari, Eirin's words falling on deaf ears. She stood up and placed both her hands on her parasol's handle. "These creatures do not adhere to the Spell Card Rules. As such, neither should you."

"What do you mean?", blurted Reimu in confusion.

Lifting her parasol like a cane, she bade them farewell with a "Toodles!" and a wink before bringing it down to open a large portal beneath the girls' feet.

"Damn you Yukari!", yelled Reimu, Marisa and Sanae as they fell along with Nitori, Shikieiki and Komachi.

"Say hello to your mom for me!" added Yukari before she closed her portals. Wiping the blood off her forehead, she wondered what else was she supposed to be dealing with.

 _CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!_

Oh, right. The demons. She turned to her remaining companions, Eirin and the Slayer and pointed nonchalantly at the now severely dented shutter in front of them.

"Oi, Slayer, what's your game plan for this problem right here?", she asked while nudging the armoured man with her elbow. "You're the expert here."

"Uh, guys, you might want to hurry. The shutter's going to cave in at any moment now," warned Eirin.

The Slayer, looking at Yukari, pulled out a large futuristic shotgun seemingly out of nowhere and pumped it.

"The same plan I've been following for the past few millennia, Yukari: Rip and Tear."

* * *

The imp jumped up and down trying to get a better view of the front. After giving chase to the humans that fought it at the abandoned bar, it decided to return to base. It was thankful for the serum spray given to it along with every demon that arrived as the laser beam the hat-wearing human shot only winded it. It contemplated continuing pursuit after losing them but the huge horde that people call its demonic brethren might have already killed them by then. It was a shame. Being too cowardly to face against the monstrous Doom Slayer, it only tasted the flesh of dead humans. Being transferred here did not make much difference at all as everything was mostly dead by the time it arrived. At least the variety of corpses made for it. Youkai meat was not all it was hyped up to be.

Aimlessly hunting for stragglers in the power plant with fellow imps, it was natural for it to be excited when it heard the alarm go off followed by a series of explosions. A challenge! Adventure! Knowing that there was no possible way that the dreaded Slayer could ever show up, it charged along with the crowd that seemed to be focused on a specific locker room. The girl's locker room, to be exact. This confused the imp. They were beings created from the depths of Hell and the succubi, while responsible for birthing them, only acted as a medium of the creation process. Noting the small population Hell had due to eons of the Slayer's slaughter, it wondered if all this fuss was for locating females for succubus transformation. If so, it wished it joined his fellow imps in dealing with the forces responsible for the explosions.

However, there was no turning back now. It got swept away by the excitement and found itself amongst the presence of hundreds of Hell Knights, Hell Barons and Pinkies. At least, that was what it thought were the names given by humans for the brutish bald beasts, tall goat-legged demons and rotund tusked rams. It saw them only as its brothers and thus, made no such distinction. Due to their towering height, the imp was forced to jump to see the action properly.

Then, an idea came to it. With its diminutive stature, could easily weave its way to the front. Amidst the roaring of the demons and the clanging of the iron shutter, it managed to squeeze through into an open gap in the crowd. It was conveniently positioned such that it had a clear view. Such occurrences were suspicious but it did not question it. If some unknown force was allowing it the luxury of the view, why bother asking?

It saw that the shutter was nearly breaking due to the persistent efforts of the Pinkies and the fists of the Hell Knights. It could not help but grin with glee. Whatever was in that room surely must be a threat of high level if it called for the attention of many of its stronger, bigger brothers. Since the Slayer was not here, it wanted to see for itself what lay behind that steel shutter.

What happened next shocked the living lights out of it. It disappeared as quickly as it appeared but it was certain that it saw it! Just as the shutter was knocked down, a rip opened in the space in front of the front-liners. The rip, no, gap had numerous eyes staring at everyone from within. Before the imp had time to feel unnerved by the mysterious gap, a train came speeding through the hallway, turning everything in its path into a bloody pulp. As it sped through the demons, blood and guts spattered everywhere like a race car speeding through puddles. The imp's small size allowed it enough mobility to jump away in time but the train was gone by the time it wiped away the blood and bits of demons off its face.

A lot of questions were flooding its head and it doubted it wanted to know the answers to it. Unfortunately for the imp, the answer was about to hit it like a shotgun blast to the face. The high pitched roars its fellow Hell Knights were making made its heart drop like an anvil. Emerging from the cloud of dust and stepping onto the remains of its runover brethren were three figures: A blond female with something resembling an umbrella, a white-haired female wielding a mystical bow and arrow and the very being it refused to believe was here with it. Armed with the shotgun that struck fear and iron pellets into the hearts of demons, the Slayer charged.

xxx

How much ground did it cover already? 10 metres? 100 metres? All it knew that the further it ran away from _them_ , the better. What kind of monsters did this realm have?! It was terrible enough that _He_ was present but the other two accompanying him were no less terrifying. The blond, the one called Yukari, seemed to strut carelessly in the wake of the Slayer's wrath. However, if anyone got close enough to her, the gaps will suddenly appear and murder any demon in a variety of unconventional ways. Crushed by a large gravestone, impaled by street signs, carved into pieces by lasers. Those were just some of the ways Yukari dispatched so many of its brethren. As for the fate of those still living, she finishes them off with her parasol and walks away.

Eirin, the silver-haired one, acted as active support for the Slayer, creating a tag-team of death. As the Slayer jumped into the fray with his shotgun, mulching several heads as he landed, Eirin would pick off the stragglers surrounding him with her bow and arrow. The imp knew that it was not a common bow as conventional human weaponry, excluding firearms and demonic energy-infused fists, did little harm to them. But the arrows that struck them had killed them even if they were not vital areas. Was it poison? A toxin? Could be. But then it saw her charge up an arrow until it glowed. Upon release, it blew a hole in the torsos of ten Hell Knights, the arrow itself stopped by a wall.

The area that they were in, a main hallway, should have been a huge advantage for the demons as the Slayer would have little room to move. Not that it mattered anyway if past encounters were to be taken account. Still, it would have given it more time to catch its breath. However, with the aid of these two women, it had to keep running just to keep a safe distance away from the bloodshed. This was definitely not what it signed up for. As a desperate measure, it threw fireballs behind it as it ran. This was not to score a hit on the Slayer but rather to push his fellow demons towards him to buy itself more time. Brothers? Brethren? Forget that, it could care less about such bonds. When the Slayer is around, it is every demon for itself. The shocked looks of betrayal and fear that they gave it when they felt a fireball push them forward only served to fuel its desire to run. Even if it was an accident, the imp would die anyway as punishment for friendly fire so it might as well wish everyone else death.

The sounds of explosions were getting closer. Relief was beginning to wash over it. It was finally going to be free from the Slayer onslaught and join its fellow imps in combatting this significantly lesser threat. Feeling confident as the sounds grew louder, it ran faster until it reached the maintenance hall.

The maintenance hall was a wide and spacious area designed to accommodate the various departments dedicated to maintaining equipment, vehicles and systems. As such, the hall itself looked a lot more like a plaza than a complex due to its immense size. Which was why the imp was puzzled to see its fellow imps running away from it despite it being their best battlefield. A flying head of an imp into its chest was enough indicator as to why. Coming towards its general direction were a large group of people comprised of various youkai. Most of them wielded weaponry that were no doubt taken from the fallen Moon rabbits on the surface. The ones that were leading the charge, however, were armed with nothing but their bare hands. One was short and appeared to be drunk. The other was about as tall and as muscular as the Slayer himself. Both women had horns; the former having two and latter having one. In an ironic twist that only the imp seemed to perceive, the demons were running away from horned devils.


	14. Looking Glass: Part 1

"Report."

The manager-turned-cultist quaked in his boots as he stared at the ground, hoping that his superior would take the news well. "It…it…appears th-that there has been…"

"SPEAK UP!"

"Y-y-yes, Ma'am!", he stammered, the paper in his hands shaking. "There have been explosions around the perimeter and- "

"Is there anything else that I do not know?", he heard his superior say through her teeth, anger and impatience seething with every word.

"O-oh…right." He fixed his glasses with shaky fingers and attempted to calm himself down by taking in deep breaths. Then, in one go, he yelled, "The Underground residents have broken into the facility through the maintenance hall!"

"WHAT?!"

He flinched at his superior's outburst but he pressed on in his report. "The Slayer has also been spotted annihilating the high-risk threat containment group along with two other women and another third group has been sighted approaching the Sarcophagus and our forces on the surface has been nearly wiped out!" He then collapsed to the ground, breathing heavily as he tried to catch his breath after spewing out the words in one go.

His superior said nothing. Instead of berating him like she did when he first reported the presence of resistance on the surface and the sightings of the three top-priority targets, he saw her rush to the control panel and put up surveillance footage on display. She stared at the carnage unfolding before her very eyes as she saw dozens upon dozens of her demon army crushed by the Slayer and the Underground resistance. He noted that her gun was left on the table behind her.

"What should we do, Madam Orin?", he asked timidly, still on the floor. "We have severely underestimated the ability of the people here. With the Oni and the other powerhouses in Gensokyo coming together, there's no way that we can succeed in turning Former Hell into the one true Hell once more!"

"You're right," he heard her say. "But there is still hope. The dream we have strived for, the utopia that many of us have sacrificed themselves for in providing the demons protection is still attainable."

He nearly jumped when his superior turned to point at him with a commanding finger. "Activate them."

"W-what?!", he sputtered with open eyes of disbelief. "B-but…it's too soon. We've barely tested them for anything. Not even their stability and- "

"Did you hear me stutter? Activate. _Them._ "

Wiping the accumulating cold sweat off his brow, he took out a small tablet device from his coat pocket. Swiping through dozens of screens, he stopped at the one with a list of four names. Each with an [ACTIVATE] command underneath. He gulped audibly.

"DO IT!"

"Okay, okay you don't have t-to shout at me!", he whimpered. He took one last look at the screen. Out of the four, he felt immense guilt in activating the one name. Muttering an apology under his breath, he tapped all of the names in rapid succession and shoved the tablet back into his coat pocket.

Letting go of his breath which he never realised he held, he sputtered, "It's done, Madam. It is done."

"Good," his superior said as he felt her hand on his shoulder. "That wasn't so hard now, was it?"

He tried to look away due to an extreme feeling of unease but a forceful grip on his chin turned it back to the face he dared not see. A smile that spelt death to anyone who saw it.

"Is that doubt I see? Doubt in our goals? In our virtue and dreams? Doubt of our success?"

"N-n-no, Ma'am! I w-wouldn't!", he replied with trembling fear. His head now locked in place by her grip, he could not help but catch a glimpse of the gun lying on the table behind her. Unfortunately, she caught his glimpse too.

"Oh? You thought I was going to kill you?"

"N-no, Ma'am, I- "

"Me?! The one that promised salvation to you?", she screamed, the gun now in her hand, digging into his forehead.

He let out a whimper and a flurry of unintelligible apologies as tears began to fall. The trigger was going to go off, he knew it.

"Leave."

"Eh?"

"Did you hear me stutter? I said LEAVE!"

Not taking any more chances, he got up and sprinted for the door. Time seemed to slow down as his finger pushed the button to open.

"And leave your stupidity at the door while you're at it."

The last thing he heard after was a loud bang. The last thing he saw was his own blood and brains exiting his forehead.

* * *

 _"Please, Judge, please! I'm beggin' ya, please! I will repent! I'll clean the streets! I'll even lick your boots clean as your personal shoe-shiner so, please! Have mercy!"_

 _KCHLIK, KCHLIK!_

 _"You can begin by atoning for your sins…in Hell."_

 _BANG!_

"Shiki! See anything over there?"

"Bwah!", cried Shikieiki in surprise. Shaking her head to clear those thoughts, she peeked around the corner of the hallway they were in.

"No, no one in sight. We can go now."

She carefully turned the corner and walked along the hallway with Nitori, Komachi and the three girls following behind her. Something did not feel right. Shortly after Yukari's "deployment" of them via portal, Nitori told them that the area where they had Reimu's mother contained was nearby but with high chance of demonic encounters. Yet, everywhere they went, through long corridors and trashed laboratories, not a single demon was seen. Heard, but not seen.

Wanting reassurance, she turned to Nitori.

"Hey, can you tell me where the demons are again? Something just doesn't feel right."

"Look, Shiki," Nitori exasperated. "We've been through this for the past five corners. All demon activity is centred in the maintenance hall and the locker rooms close to there."

As she said this, she showed Shikieiki her computer, pointing to the large mass of red dots in the two areas she mentioned.

"Honestly, the tech doesn't lie. Trust me on this one. I'm an engineer."

Shikieiki sighed. "All right, but just in case, I'm just going to conduct a head count to see if we're all here."

"Fine then, have it your way," Nitori replied while rolling her eyes. She then looked at the cluster of seven green dots on her screen. With a huff, she chalked it up to Shikieiki just being a worrywart.

"Hey, just to clarify, can you explain to me how your detection system works again?"

Nitori raised a brow but did not bother to look away from her screen. "Sure, I guess. It uses the facility's numerous cameras and sensors to track the movements and even heartbeats of everyone within the area of the floor we're in. However, an area that wide would consume a lot of power and I cannot risk having my laptop die on me. So, I set it to display a simplified 2D view to prolong battery life."

"Okay, I get it, I get it, no need to go full tech on me," she heard Shikieiki grumble. But she noticed a hint of concern in her tone. She looked up to find her staring worriedly behind them. "How many people do you see on your screen right now?"

Fear began to creep up to Nitori. She refreshed her screen 20 times to confirm and re-confirm the number of dots she saw. "Seven, why?"

"Because from what I see," Shikieiki answered. "We're the only ones here."

Nitori slammed her laptop shut and swung around to look behind her. Her eyes snapped wide open in shock to see that everyone, aside from them, had vanished. "What?!"

"I knew it!", grunted Shikieiki, gripping her shotgun tight. "I knew something was off!"

"Indeed, you are not wrong in deducing that, Judge," answered a low, distorted voice from behind them.

Both Nitori and Shikieiki spun round to find a lanky bespectacled elf-like youkai glaring at them with his arms crossed. Unlike the demons that they have encountered, or even the self-proclaimed demon commander Jager that Shikieiki faced, he was clad in a torn lab coat. Through the tears, they could see his veins bulging, converging towards a spot covered by his clothes.

"However," he continued, pushing his glasses up. "It is not they who have vanished but it was you two instead!"

Beads of cold sweat were forming on the foreheads of both girls, a look of shock visible only through their open eyes.

* * *

"Where did they go?!", Sanae and Komachi yelled in unison. "After they turned the corner, Nitori and Shiki just disappeared!"

"If I knew I would've told you," Marisa said as she scratched her head. "Ay, Reimu. You figure this mystery yet?"

However, to Marisa's annoyance, Reimu was busy slowly waving her arms around like a person looking for an item in the dark. "Oi! Reimu!"

"This is odd…", Reimu muttered, ignoring her friend. "They may be gone but I can feel their presence in this very hallway." She then walked to Sanae and asked, "You feel it as well, right?"

Sanae nodded. "But that's what's driving me nuts right now, Reimu. I've been looking around for any suspicious object or device but all I see is this darn map on the wall in front of us. The nameplate itself is baffling me already." Pointing towards the map in question, she grumbled, "Why have it plated in shining gold? It's not like this map is anything special. Heck, we've seen the same one for the past five corners but all of them had plain metal nameplates."

"Hmm?" Reimu's brow rose and she slowly walked up to the map. Sanae was right about how the map was practically the same. It was the map of the floor and the only thing that changed was the 'You are here!' markings on the map's right side. It was the only way to know where they were as the floorplan was almost identical on both sides. She then inspected the nameplate. It was not just plated in shining gold, it _was_ shining gold. And it was polished well too as she could easily see her reflection on the nameplate's surface.

 _'What is going on?'_

* * *

"Take a good look around you," he ordered. "Notice anything?"

Shikieiki scanned the hallway for any possible magic barriers or portals but she could find none. She did, however, notice how the map on the wall had the 'You are here!' mark on the left side instead of the right.

Nitori, on the other hand, was attempting to identify the youkai before her. He could possibly a member of staff as he wore a lab coat and she already knew of the cult that followed the deranged 'Orin'. If she could just figure out his identity, or at least his abilities, she could find a way out of this mess.

"This place… is an inversion of the hallway, isn't it?", Shikieiki asked.

Removing his glasses and keeping them in his lab coat pocket, he replied, "Yes and no. It is true that this is an 'inverted' area. However, this 'inversion' extends to this entire floor."

Snapping his fingers, two red flaming orbs appeared on either side of him. "My name is Presto. Welcome to my 'Looking Glass'."

* * *

 _ **A/N: Sorry for the rather short chapter. I wanted to make it a bit longer but university work has been piling up lately so I'm going to have to make this a multi-part thing. Hopefully, I'll be able to publish more after a while.**_


	15. Looking Glass: Part 2

A volley of fireballs was hurled at a rapid rate, their immense heat causing the hallway to begin to feel stuffy. The engineer kappa had been taking shelter behind the corner while the Judge leaped and somersaulted her way towards the demon named Presto. However, no matter how many she bobbed and weaved through, no matter how bounds forwards she made, Presto seemed to be getting further and further away while remaining still. She uttered a curse under her breath. While her shotgun may be powerful and her supply of ammunition never seemed to deplete, all of that meant nothing if her target was not in firing range.

"Cease your efforts," Presto commanded with a stern look, his floating dual array of fireballs never letting up. "Acknowledge the futility of your struggle and accept your death peacefully. I am not one to waste time."

"Don't listen to him, Shiki!", cried Nitori from her cover. "Just hang in tight, I'm looking for a way out of here!"

"That's what you said five minutes ago!", Shikieiki snapped back, her voice raised a bit too high from barely missing a fireball to the face. "Besides, the name's Eiki, goddammit!" She then let out a pained yelp as one fireball grazed her.

"I'm trying, I'm trying!", replied Nitori. But truth be told, she had no idea where to even begin looking for an exit. Instead she was transfixed on the ongoing battle, analysing the situation. _'Dang it! He must be manipulating the distance somehow to keep her away from him! How else is she not making any progress even when she is dashing like mad? Wait. That's not answering the real issue here. How the hell did we get here?!'_ Her laptop was running scans to detect any trace of magic or energy fluctuations but the only ones it detected were those that were emanating from Shiki and that demon, Presto.

 _'Crap.'_

She swiped off the beads of sweat that formed on her forehead as her brain racked to figure out this mystery. Her hand was gripping a fistful of own hair to try to calm herself down because she knew that she did not have much time. She has seen what those fireballs can do to the wall behind Shiki and there was only so much dodging that Shiki could do before she slips up or run out of breath.

A Judge she may be but a mortal she still is.

" _GYAHH!"_

A wail of agony snapped Nitori out of deep thought, causing her face to contort with immense fear.

" _SHIKI!"_

 _"IT'S EIKI, DAMMIT!",_ yelled Eiki amidst the hail of fireballs. " _AND FIND SOMETHING TO GET US OUT OF HERE!"_

 _"OK!",_ Nitori screamed back and went rummaging through her rucksack.

 _'Damnitdamnitdamnitdamnitdamnit! What am I supposed to do?! There's nothing in here that can help! Water bottle, goggles, change of clothes, notepad, first aid kit; these are my work supplies! Dang it, Yukari! Give me a head's up first before dragging me into this!'_

Her chest felt tight as her heartrate soared. Despite the heat, cold sweat flowed down her forehead and tears welled up by the edge of her panicked eyes. Her head tried to think of a solution but the immense pressure blocked out any sense of reason.

As Nitori was in a panic, the Judge nursed her leg that, while not taking a direct hit, was grazed by a fireball close enough to burn it. It was not a serious burn but a burn nonetheless. Her eyes frantically looked around for anything she could use to ease the pain but Presto would not let up. If anything, it was almost as though he was now mocking her injury by hurling fireballs towards her legs; forcing her to jump more. She winced with every jump as her leg muscles rippled to soften the landing, aggravating the pain of the burn.

 _'Damn, he knows!',_ she cursed inwardly. _'His volleys are now directed at my legs instead of my head. Cocky bastard. He's trying to wear me down! I need to look something to ease the pain. Nitori's no good. She's probably got only her work things on her.'_

As she was searching and limping around Presto's attacks, she caught a glimpse at the nameplate beneath the floorplan on the wall. It was a metallic item and was reasonably far enough away to remain cool from the heat. Now with a clear objective, she dragged herself towards it.

 _'Wait, something's off,'_ she thought as she approached it. She noticed an oddity on the nameplate itself but was not sure what it was. Inching closer towards it, she saw it! She then shot a fierce look towards Nitori, a high-risk plan that just might work was about to be set in motion.

* * *

From Presto's perspective, the fierce glare looked like the breaking down of the psyche of a weakling that put up a face of bravado. He had seen it before; they always start blaming their friends or plead for help when death lingers. His sly slender eyes grinned in silent glee to see that the strong prey has finally shown her true colours. The flustered shades of red on Nitori's cheeks and her look of shock told him that it was probably the blame and anger. How beautiful.

 _'My co-workers always looked down on me for being the observant person I am. Too weird, too creepy, bah! They never knew that I knew what they were truly like on the inside: heartless, greedy and selfish. No one makes 'friends'. They get together for mutual interest and leave them in the dust when they gain nothing. It takes a few nudges to push towards the edge and make that side shine. This is no different. With my ability,_ Looking Glass _, this is too easy. We'll see, Judge Eiki! Who shall be judged right here? You or me? I cannot wait to see your agony up close!'_

However, he thought wrong! Since he was looking at the Judge from a side profile angle, he did not see that a ferocious smirk accompanied the glare! A look of determination and power!

* * *

 _'What are you thinking, Shiki?!',_ Nitori seemed to ask with her eyes. ' _I can't read minds so you're gonna hafta spell it out for me!'_ The determined look that the Judge was giving her was telling her that she figured it out. But what? What was it? Was it something she missed? Did technology fail her at the most crucial moment? What, what, what?!

As if sensing her confusion, the Judge pointed towards the nameplate with her shotgun before resuming her dodges. Nitori looked at the nameplate in question. It was too far away for her to see from her current position but she also did not want to risk running into the hallway of balls of fire so she reached into her ruck sack and fished for a pair of her handmade goggles. The goggles, unassuming in nature, had many functions including zoom, multiple types of vision within the spectrum of light and the ability to have her own interactive interface to easily do things a normal smartphone can do like arrange meetings. She had loads of those. Did not like them.

Donning the goggles, she zoomed in closer to inspect the nameplate. Her eyes grew wide. It was unbelievably shiny and reflective! It was also gold rather the normal dull steel which piqued her interest even further. But what stood out the most was the reflection: the fireballs were coming from behind the Judge!

 _'WHAT?!',_ blurted Nitori mentally. _'The fireballs were coming from behind this whole time?! Why does it still appear like it was coming from the front-!'_ A flash of realisation struck Nitori! She now knew what the Judge was planning. But that meant she began to worry whether Shiki would be able to pull it off or if her assumption was correct at all. Life or death hung at the balance of this one assumption!

 _'Come on, come on! You can do it!',_ she cheered in her mind as her eyes were transfixed on every movement Shiki made, hoping that she would be able to make it to the nameplate.

Every hop, every jump, every limp forward; her eyes followed in anticipation and anxiety. The heat and humidity of the environment made her sweat but it could not compare to the chilling grip of fear that caked her in beads of icy cold drops.

She gulped.

Shiki missed a step and fell but got up on her feet in time to avoid a fireball to the head.

It was a heart-stopping moment but the fall helped Shiki slide closer to it. While her shotgun did misfire; the pellets marking the area near the nameplate, it did not matter. She was now in reach.

Nitori's teeth clenched. Her breath held. What was Shiki going to do now? She was right there. What would she do? What? What? What?!

Then, with inhuman reflexes, Shiki propelled herself away from the incoming wall of fireballs with her injured leg and spun around in mid-air to face away from Presto. Nitori's jaw dropped, surprised at the course of action taken. Her face asked a multitude of questions that were never going to be answered on the spot as she then saw Shiki flick her shotgun into firing position and shot at the empty hallway, away from Presto. Time appeared to crawl as Nitori's eyes tracked the movement of the shotgun pellets. Then, instead of hitting the wall at the end of the hallway, the pellets hit an invisible person-shaped wall which, if the outline provided from the blood spatters were to suggest, got stunned back and keeled over in pain.

A triumphant smirk cracked on Shiki's face; it told Nitori that whatever Shiki had planned worked. She could not take it. Her pent-up anxiety took over and she felt the strong to say something. Anything! "Shiki! W-w-what the _hell_ was that?!", she half-stammered. "No, seriously – what the _heck_ was that?! What were you thinking?!"

"Why don't you see for yourself?", replied Shiki while pointing behind her.

Nitori snapped her head to look behind Shiki and saw that Presto was bloodied and on his knees. She then snapped back towards Shiki, "Yeah, I know that but that still does not explain how you did, well, all of _that?!_ "

"Heh."

 _Heh?_

"What?", blurted Nitori.

Shiki stood up, her smirk remaining in place, and turned to Nitori. "You know, for an engineer, I thought you'd be a lot more perceptive than this."

Nitori's face flushed with anger but Shiki did not give her a chance to speak her mind.

"I know that you know that we both saw the weird reflection on that map nameplate. It was in reverse. In that reflection, the fireballs came from behind me instead of the front which meant that I've been going about this the wrong way. However, that also meant that I've figured out how Presto's trick works. The problem was I didn't know _how_."

Nitori watched as Shiki knelt again to aim her shotgun towards the groaning demon. "So, you meant to say that, despite not knowing how Presto was even doing what he was doing or if what you _thought_ he was doing was correct at all, you took a _gamble_ on it?!", she exasperated.

"That's right!", was her friend's reply, much to her disbelief, annoyance and a mixture of emotions that could not be explained. "You see, the misfire my shotgun had earlier wasn't a misfire at all—it was a test to prove my point."

 _Wha-?_

"You are aware that a shotgun shell contains multiple pellets, right?"

Nitori nods.

"Well, I thought if my assumptions were true, he would have had to pull us into this place in one way or another and I couldn't shake the feeling that that nameplate right there was the answer to it all."

Shiki points towards the area of the misfire. "Notice how the nameplate remained untouched? By right, at least one pellet was guaranteed to hit it especially given the range and yet, it's clean."

Skeptical, Nitori approached the nameplate with caution to investigate this claim. She checked up and down; no blemish was to be found. She was, understandably, dumbfounded. Then, it hit her. The arrow of realisation hit her like a baseball to the face; the key to their predicament lay with that nameplate. "Wait, if that many pellets missed the nameplate then that means that they never missed at all! They went through!", she exclaimed with her hands waving in front of her. "And if they went through, that means that it must be a portal of sorts!"

 _Whizz!_

She suddenly heard something zipping by. Coincidentally, her hands felt light all of a sudden. She took one look at them and began trembling. All the blood in her face vanished. Her palms were now empty charred holes. "Ah…ah…ahhhhh! My hands!"

"You…you thought you could get rid of me so easily, huh?!"

Her head snapped towards the voice, her heart now dropping to the ground; Presto was on his feet and in the proper direction from which he was shot at. "Did you really think that you could forget about _ME?!",_ he roared, his bulging pulsating heart fully visible on his chest as Nitori saw that, with his lab coat torn up by Shiki's shotgun, his protruding veins were centred towards his heart. She was not sure what he had done or undergone to have his heart grow to that size or even be as fascinatingly gross as it was. What she did know was that it made him look terrifying.

Presto staggered as Shiki proceeded to shoot him over and over with a seemingly endless supply of shells. But, much to Nitori's horror, he kept moving towards them. One stride at a time.

He began to cackle as he realised that the shotgun did nothing to him. "Idiots! You are only delaying the inevitable! Once I get my hands on you, I will take immense pleasure in watching your eyeballs pop out of their sockets as I wring your neck dry!"

He then turned his wild gaze towards Shiki. " _You!"_ , he shouted with conviction as he pointed an accusing finger. "You think you're so clever with your wits and theories about how my [Looking Glass] works. Hoo boy. But I must confess, you really fooled me there with that crazed angry look you had earlier towards your friend there. Yeah. Got me good."

Nitori ignored the pain in her hands as she was now confused. And by the raised brow on her shotgun-toting partner, so was Shiki.

"Here I was thinking that I could finally see it: I, Presto, bringing out the true base instinct of people out of the Judge of Paradise herself. You know how people are, don't you? Soulless, condescending maggots that only suck up to you because you can do something for them. No one cared who I was until someone wanted a diagnostics test or fix their machines. But did they care about me? _NO!"_

By this point, Shiki has stopped shooting as she was shocked by the sudden outburst of anger and his outlook in society. At least, that was what Nitori thought as she felt the same way.

"But…", Presto continued, prompting Nitori to keep whatever she had in mind on hold. "That all changed when co-founder Orin approached me. She told me that the Underground was in dire need of a social uprising. An upheaval. A revolution. To restore Hell to what it once was. I thought it was all nonsense but then she offered me something special; this body. She told me that she needed help strong-arming some of my colleagues into cooperating and that she also needed someone to act as both a prototype for this vessel of demonic energy and quelling any resistance the employees made."

"And you're telling us this, why?", Shiki asked with uncertainty.

"Silence!", he bellowed. "You're going to die anyway so I might as well tell you as you would be the last people hearing it."

 _'Wow… Just wow,'_ , thought Nitori.

"With my disdain for this dreadful excuse we call 'society', I whole-heartedly accepted! And then—"

"I'm sorry but can you just… get to the point already?", Nitori interrupted meekly. "Not to be rude or anythin' but you _did_ burn holes into my hands and I'd rather you finish up quick before I start contemplating killing myself to be rid of your babbling."

"I don't… how could you… what the… _argh!_ Fine! If only it means killing you first…", he grumbled. "To cut to the chase, my [Looking Glass] is essentially a separate mirror dimension of my own. As the name suggests, it pulls people in via reflection. Once in this pocket dimension of mine, your vision is the opposite of what it should be. What's written left-to right is right-to-left and what's in front of you is behind you. The only constant is the portal of entry. Now, I don't know how you deduced that yourself, Judge, but the fact remains that it was all in vain! If my heart is untouched, I will remain impervious to even death itself! No number of bullets can kill me! I don't even need my ability to end your lives; I'll just burn pretty holes into your skulls and let my name be immortalised in the black remains of your brains!"

He then lights up his hands, creating two large flaming fireballs. Nitori felt helpless as she saw Shiki try shooting his hands to no avail. She closed her eyes. There was nothing else she could do. Wait. The nameplate from earlier. If the pellets did indeed go through and, as Presto confirmed, it was a portal, didn't that mean that...

 _Squish!_

' _This was it,'_ , Nitori thought. _'My life has come to an end. I hope Marisa doesn't cry for me when she finds my—wait. I don't recall burning being associated with wet squishiness before.'_

Nitori slowly opened her eyes. As vision returned to her bit by bit, she could see that Presto was now standing still, his fireballs gone. His face a look of shock, fear and disbelief. Through his chest, a feminine hand was gripping his squished deformed heart.

"Cheers, ze! The cavalry's here! At least, I think that's how the line went…", she heard a familiar voice say. "Marisa? Is that you?"

Emerging from behind Presto, out came Marisa and Sanae walking towards her. Tears began to flow from her face. However, she noticed something was amiss; Reimu was not present.

"Hey, where's Reimu?"

Marisa said nothing, pointing towards the figure standing over the now dead Presto's body with his heart still in her hand.

"Jeez, why do I have to do this part? You have a .50 calibre revolver, for crying out loud, Marisa!"

"Gotta save 'munitions, y'know? 'Sides, you have that nifty trick of 'floating' in and out of reality so that means that you could literally phase through his chest and kill him."

"Fuck you."

"You're welcome."

 _'Ah, still at it I see,'_ , thought Nitori with an uneasy smile. Then, she felt a firm grip on her hands. "Oh, my goodness! Nitori! Are you alright?"

She looked up to see that it was Sanae who held her hands, her eyes looking like they were about to cry. "Naw, this is nothing," she assured her. "I think I've got a first-aid kit somewhere in that rucksack of mine. Would you be a gal and fetch it?"

With a determined nod, Sanae went over to her rucksack and came back with the kit. She opened it up and saw all of the usual things one would find in a first aid kit. The green spray bottle, however, struck her as odd as Nitori saw her brow raise a bit.

"Ah, that there is a multi-purpose aid spray,", Nitori said. "Use that on my hands and then go over and use it on Shiki's burnt leg."

"Isn't it supposed to be Eiki because Shiki is her last name?", Sanae asked.

"Whatever, it's short and rolls off the tongue better," huffed Nitori. "Now hurry up and spray."

Sanae then applied the spray as instructed. Sure enough, despite Sanae's perceived apprehensiveness, both Nitori's and Shiki's wounds were fully healed after a few seconds.

"Whoa, Nitori, how does that stuff work?!", exclaimed a surprised Shiki as she tested her healed leg.

"It is laced with stem cells that are programmed to quickly identify any damaged cell and then replace it and multiply to regenerate any wounds."

"So, like healing sprays from Resident Evil then?", Sanae asked.

"What's a 'Resident Evil'?", Nitori answered which prompted the green-haired shrine maiden to wave it off and sigh in despair.

She looked around to see that the whole team was reunited. She could only hope that the others and fellow survivors have been this lucky.

"Wait, hold up,", blurted Nitori, the question that had been at the back of mind since the reunion re-emerged. "How did you guys find us in the first place?"

"Oh, that? We were inspecting that nameplate because it looked weird when all of a sudden iron pellets came right out of it!", answered Sanae. "Nearly blinded Reimu and I!"

Nitori could feel a smug aura from Shiki's general direction.

"Heheh, 'I'."

"Dear lord, Marisa, really?", Sanae exasperated. "That's such a lame pun."

"See, even Sanae thinks your puns are bad,", Reimu butted in.

"Heh, 'see'."

"...dammnit."

* * *

In an unknown sector not found anywhere on the facility's map, the pained wails and shrieks of a woman could be heard. She had been locked away in there ever since Olivia's plan had been set into motion. Staring with dead eyes, every crack of the wall was counted as it was her only means of keeping her sanity intact. This…thing that she had become. The fate that had fallen upon her. She did not want anyone to find her in such a state. Feeling it coming with movement, pulse and convulsion in her, she let out an inhuman scream that echoed throughout the sector.

Another one had been born.

Death, she felt, was the only salvation for her.

* * *

 _ **A/N: Yo! Sorry for the long hiatus. Been busy adjusting to my new accommodation in university among other things. Hopefully, it won't take me 4 months to publish a new chapter. Till next time!**_


	16. The Curtain Draws Near

"Give'em Hell, lads!", a voice roared followed by a chorus of cheers and battle-cries. The large maintenance hall, once an empty space designed to house the many large components of the power plant, was now the killing field of the clash between the demons from Hell and the residents of the Underground. The residents, mostly consisting of survivors of the demons' onslaught on their homes, were rallied up and led by two oni many believed were part of the Three Devas, Suika Ibuki and Hoshiguma Yuugi. Most of them knew who they were and those did not have heard of them. Aside from their reputed strength, they were also famous for frequenting all the bars and pubs in the Underground—and wrecking some of them whenever they get into a drunken argument. While Yuugi's height and demeanour may be frightening and Suika's never-ending drunken stupor may be off-putting, the people of the Underground love them for their carefree attitude and genuine care for those she considers friends.

The attack on the Underground came as a surprise for all of them. One moment they were glued to their televisions and screens listening to the next momentous change that Former Hell Solutions might bring and then the next moment Parsee was killed and deformed live by the co-founder, an intense earthquake levelled most of the city and then monsters came flooding out into streets and massacred their friends and families.

To say that they were traumatised would be a huge understatement; the streets of Former Hell were overrun by these… _monsters…_ neither human nor youkai, almost as soon as the earthquake subsided. No one knew what they were. Nobody could have foreseen the horrors they have experienced first-hand. The rivers of blood that formed from streams of slaughtered households, wives watching helplessly as their children get devoured, husbands breathing their last breath underneath the sole of a giant goat-demon, watching their families get annihilated. None were safe, they did not discriminate. It was the cruellest form of equality that all had to bear; everyone was equally in despair.

It was no wonder when one of the survivors saw Yuugi overwhelm entire swarms of the smaller imps with ease, the fire of vengeance has been lit. That fire grew bigger when Suika jumped into the fray by swinging around her ball and chain, crushing the bones of any demon within range. To the people who had sealed them off in the past, the Oni were horned demons. To them, they were their only hope of fighting them back.

"That's the spirit, people! Let's teach them a lesson!", Yuugi cried out with one of her muscular arms pumping in the air. Taking a dramatic step back to take up a fighting stance, she smirked as she charged her arm back, clenching it hard to reveal bulging veins. In the heat of moment, it almost appeared like her breathing gave off steam, giving her a menacing aura.

The army of demons, consisting mainly of the small fire-throwing imps, the bulky tusked creatures that charged through with no mercy and the imposingly tall goat-headed demons that had an energy cannon for a hand. Their numbers dwarfed those of the resistance and those goat demons (which they dubbed the Baron) easily stood over Yuugi by several heads. The imps hurled fireballs into the frontlines of the opposition, leaving holed bodies in their wake.

Doom appeared inevitable, their efforts futile as they were slowly overwhelmed by sheer numbers. All hope appeared lost until…

"Big Four Arcanum: **[Ultimate Knockout in 3 Steps!]"**

 _KTHOOM!_

A huge shockwave ploughed through the whole mid-section of the demonic army, a cloud of dust and debris hissing from the aftermath. Soon, the air that has been displaced by the shockwave came back down as rain. The fist that created the shockwave hissed with steam as the rain fell, momentarily masking a glimmer of a sombre demon. The smirk then reappeared and with a triumphant laugh, Yuugi gloated, "That all you got, beasts! We got more where that came from, that's for sure!"

The men and women behind her found themselves in tears and their morale regained. And thus, they charged into the fray with their battle cries, armed with whatever they could find. Dropped firearms, pitchforks, their own magic; anything was fair game if you could kill with it. One even resorted to throwing plates at the demons for that was the only thing they could do.

However, emerging from behind the waves of demons, a mighty roar bellowed. Heavy thuds marked each footstep it took, the revving of its rotating rocket-launcher arm deafening the shrieks of frightened imps beneath its feet. The resistance advances halted in terror as they saw the terrifying monstrosity that loomed over all of them. It had a large head with a fittingly large set of horns that made it look like part of a helmet. It was about more than twice the size of the Barons and its body was plated with some ancient armour yet something about the core in its chest appeared to be futuristic.

"N-no… no way…!"

"This can't be! What is this?!"

"Honey, I'll be seeing you much sooner than I thought…"

Murmurs of fear and panic seeped into the ranks of the forefront of the resistance. What was this… _thing…_ that even the demons were afraid of?! Why must such a thing exist?!

"Oi! Big guy!"

The massive demon, known in the Archives only as the Cyberdemon, snapped to turn towards the small blonde one-horned female flesh-bag. Beside it was a smaller, dual-horned female. It roared at this insignificant display of defiance.

"Yeah, that's right! You!", pointed Yuugi with a confident finger. "I don't know what y'all are or where y'all come from. I don't even know why you came here or how many of you are there. What I do know is this simple truth: Nobody comes into our peaceful city and cause trouble without any repercussion whatsoever!"

"T-That's right!", slurred Suika, her cheeks flushed red. "You're gonna come 'ere and we'll kick your asthbhphtl…"

"Goodness me, Suika, don't tell me you're _this_ drunk already!", chided Yuugi with a grin.

With a grin to match hers, Suika replied, "Water you on about! I'm thober as ever!"

The behemoth roared loudly, its maw wide and toothy. It swiped its non-rocket launcher arm to launch several sharp energy slices towards the duo. In a flash, their eyes slanted in seriousness and they dashed towards it, kicking up a dust cloud.

The rest of the resistance force provided their undying support by having anyone with ranged weapons take shots at it while the two oni fight to take it down. Soon, the scene of the maintenance hall was that of a colourful chaos as the ground was painted with the blood and gore of both demon, youkai and human while the air above it was filled with reds, blues, oranges and whites as all sorts of projectiles were being exchanged. It was going to be a fight to the death. Both sides shall face heavy losses. But, if this was what it took to drive them back then-

 _"*taptaptap* Ahem, ahem, testing, testing… Is this thing on?",_ the intercom suddenly blared, grinding all conflict to a halt save for the oni and the Cyberdemon who happened to be taking their fight further away.

The imps grunted in confusion. The Barons turned wildly to look for the interrupter of their slaughter. The resistance forces, on the other hand, knew the voice _very_ well.

"h-hey, isn't that-?"

"shut up! I'm trying to listen!"

 _"Ahem, attention all Underground dwellers and any residents of Gensokyo, please stand behind the yellow line. I repeat, please stand behind the yellow line and wait till the fast-moving locomotive has passed through. Thank you, and have a good day!"_

As the announcement went on, all of the resistance members began to check the floor and lo, and behold! There was a yellow line that acted as a partition between the resistance and the demons. Not sure what to expect, the rest of the fighters who were stuck in the frontlines made a hasty retreat to get behind the yellow line with scorching balls of fire and energy hot on their tails.

Then, they watched in awe, confusion and shock as an array of four pairs of large gaps appeared on either side of the wall with the demons in between. Soon, the rumbling came. It was initially a small tremor, but it did not take long for the tremor to become quakes as speeding past those gaps were entire subway trains mowing down anything that stood in their way, a loud synchronised splatter and crunch resounded in the hall as the blood, bones and gore of the once-unstoppable demon army flew everywhere. After less than a minute had passed, the trains had disappeared, leaving the hall empty with nothing but stunned survivors and gallons of blood.

Making their presence known by emerging through the floor by way of gap were Yukari, Eirin and a tall menacing man in a suit of armour wielding a shotgun who were all in a defensive stance save for the gap youkai.

"W-what just happened?", a voice from the crowd of survivors called out.

Yukari simply smiled, opened her paper fan and cooled herself with it. "The cavalry happened."

The entire hall deadpanned. It did not make any bit of sense at all. One member, who had been holding himself back from mindlessly going into the frontlines to kill the demons to reunite with his deceased family, lunged towards her but was held back by the others.

"How could you?!", he screamed with teary eyes. "You mean to tell me that the efforts of all of us, our deaths and sacrifices, were all for nothing and you could have just _wiped_ them all out like that?! Huh?!  
WHY?! Why? Why…?"

He was then reduced to sobs as he felt his body go weak. Yukari, keeping her face hidden behind the paper fan replied, "I may be powerful in that regard, but I am no god. I am not omnipotent nor am I all-seeing, I have my limits too. Besides, those trains have to come from somewhere and I can't afford to keep using them or else it might cause others trouble!"

* * *

 **New York, 1998**

Mass hysteria has been hitting the streets as news of the supposed haunted midnight train may as well be true as four subway trains have been reported by eyewitnesses as "covered in demonic blood". As unbelievable as it is, DNA reports of the blood have come out with no existing matches to any living organism on this planet, leaving many to speculate that it might have been true. Furthermore, the train operators have revealed in an interview that all of them, despite operating trains at various parts of the city at the time, have all reported the same thing: a trip straight into Hell complete with several types of demons.

In light of this, however, religious groups have claimed this was the sign that the Apocalypse is near. The more extreme of the groups, notable the Westboro Baptist Church, have begun picketing stating that the incident is proof that God has vindicated them.

One thing is for certain, no one theory can properly explain this weird, bizarre incident.

* * *

Yukari felt a cold shiver up her spine out of the blue, causing Eirin to raise a brow.

"Anyways, the real reason I've cleared this place out is because we're expecting the arrival of another person."

Before any of the resistance members could ask, she already started counting down.

"And 3…2…1…and…here she…"

The ceiling above them cracked and suddenly gave way to a hole, two figures seen tumbling down with a sickening crack as both their bodies bounced off due to the impact. However, despite the supposed fatal fall, they both sprung up to their feet.

"H-heh… you're pretty g-good…", panted the one with flowing long black hair and wore a tattered pink nurse outfit. She swiped the blood off her mouth with grit as she glared at the armoured figure staring her down then pointing weakly towards it with finger-guns.

The figure's armour appeared similar to that of the armoured man standing by Yukari and Eirin, but it was sleeker in design, had streaks of glowing orange energy across its body that complemented its ominous red visor and seven light-purple hard light blades floating close to its back.

"Likewise, pitiful Lunarian," it acknowledged with a feminine robotic voice. "But my quarrel is not with you but with the doctor that created the concoction that kept the one responsible for the deaths of my husband and son behind bars."

Eirin's blood ran cold. She knew full well who the armoured woman was and who she was referring to. The armoured man, on the other hand, betrayed no emotion behind his helmet and firmed his grip on his shotgun. Yukari simply smiled.

"Glad you could stop by, Your Highness. What brings you here to this neck of the woods?", asked Yukari in a sing-song manner.

Kaguya felt a vein bulge in her forehead as she turned towards the paper-fan loving youkai.

"Well, everything was going smoothly…"

* * *

 **Geyser Relief Operations Base, several moments earlier**

She broke the arm off the Razer that dared to fire a laser through her twice before twisting it with a sickening crunch towards its own head and forcibly fired its attached laser-cannon. Kaguya had finally caught up with the demon that annoyed her to no end. She was pleased with herself for having the determination to do something for once but was then reminded that the area around the geyser was still littered with the bastards.

However, she then heard the searing sounds of energy waves being thrown around followed the dying shrieks of a chorus of imps. She turned around and her eyes bulged to see that most of the demons behind her had been sliced to pieces. The survivors of this onslaught were quickly picked off by the moon rabbit soldiers of the Yagokoro Defence Guard. She was then amazed to find that the surface had nearly clear of demonic presence.

Picking up a nearby sniper rifle, she put her years of FPS gaming into practice by attempting to headshot the remaining group of demons, which now consisted of scared imps as most of the heavy units like the Hell Barons and Hell Knights had either been slaughtered by the princess whose rage was eerily similar to _His_ , gunned down by the relentless pressure put on by the defence forces guarding the Underground's wounded refugees or reduced to ribbons by this armoured newcomer who looked uncannily similar to _Him._ She aimed down the sights and tried to kill a limping imp. She steadied her breathing, letting the aim be on point and…never get the shot because the armoured newcomer sliced it by then.

She tried again on another running imp, this time attempting to hit it while jumping and spinning in the air. By the time her aim was on its head, it was already dead; head chopped off. This went on until there was only one imp left, the princess's patience wearing thin from having her kills denied with every imp. There would be no messing around. She took a deep breath, calling upon the spirit of AWP god, KennyS, to grant her the flick speed she needed to pull this off. Without second thought, she whipped out her sniper rifle and fired.

Wasting no time to confirm her kill, she flew towards the imp's location. To her anguish, she hit the shot…after it died being impaled by the same newcomer, its limp body still hanging by its killer's arm. Kaguya was having none of this. This guy may have saved her the trouble of clearing the floor, but she was not going to accept this travesty.

"Stop stealing my kills, you fucking hack!", she lashed out.

The newcomer said nothing but turned its head towards the angry gamer. "Hmm? " _Stealing my kills"_? It seems that the Lunar people have such little care for life that they treat it like a game."

Suddenly, the newcomer flung the imp's body off its arm and glowed a bright orange from the streaks of energy across the armour, seven bright lights coming into existence behind it. It then began to float and its visor flashed blood red as it stared down the Lunar princess.

"Was that the same way you people felt when you let _her_ kill _my family?!"_

Kaguya had no time to react as a hard, electrifying punch connected to her face in a split second and she was sent flying. However, she managed to quickly recover by controlling her movement mid-air while floating. Her eyes narrowed in anger and in recognition of the person before her. On the Night of Demons, the Armoured Man left behind a scroll that was said to contain vital information about _himself._ She remembered reading the scroll centuries before her exile to Earth. While she had forgotten most of it, she did remember this:

 ** _"Rejoice. The Slayer he cometh._**

 ** _And he is never one_**

 ** _For in his place there shall be another_**

 ** _To provide salvation_**

 ** _In the darkest hours of civilisation_**

 ** _When He is condemning the wrathful demons in another."_**

There was heated debate among the Lunar intellectuals over the meaning of this part of the scroll. They were conducted in the utmost secrecy as the scroll was now part of the Vault of Secrecy (it was a redundant effort now that she thought about it). Some argued that it meant that the Slayer was a god-like entity that was able to be everywhere at once. Some also argued that it meant that in the event of a demonic invasion, one person shall be chosen to take up the mantle as the Slayer of their civilisation. How this selection will take place was unknown, but they were certain it would happen. Seeing this armoured entity before her eyes, she could now say for certain that the latter was right.

Why?

Because the wearer of the Slayer-like armour was none other than the entity of pure fury and rage herself, Junko.

"So, being a fury wasn't enough for you?", joked Kaguya.

Junko snorted at this. "No. During the Night of Demons, I was initially going to use that as a distraction to sneak into the prison where _she_ was held undetected. But, these demons were standing in my way for vengeance, so I slaughtered and mutilated every single one that dared delay my thirst for _her_ blood. After leaving a sea of red in my wake, I was finally by the gates of the prison when suddenly an orb of blinding light appeared. It told me that my wrath and brutality were exceptional in dispatching the demons and so granted me a set of armour. I knew it was from an ancient being for it had a purity that matched my own. It called itself "The Seraphim" and told me that I was now the appointed harbinger of doom for the legions of Hell should they re-emerge once more."

Kaguya deadpanned. "Geez, woman. You could've just said yes and spare me the word vomit…Whoa!"

She sidestepped another punch to the face by moment's notice. "I think you have anger issues. Would like to book an appointment for counselling in my office?"

Kaguya then whipped out two revolvers out of nowhere and spun them around with flair. Junko, being the embodiment of rage, cared little for insignificant displays and went straight for the kill. Noticing a moment too late, Kaguya tried to shoot the fury in the head as Junko was already preparing a vicious elbow slam onto her head. However, the bullet hit Junko's elbow instead, knocking it slightly off course and causing the armoured fury to smash the ground.

The impact of Junko's elbow slam was so great that it immediately punched a hole into the ground, causing both fighters to fall. Taking this opportunity for an aerial assault, Kaguya and Junko rapidly exchanged punches as they fell, somehow forgetting they could fly altogether.

Which led them to their current predicament.

* * *

Yukari nodded, Eirin was flabbergasted and the armoured man was intrigued. Yukari, for acknowledging Kaguya's story and cheering in silence as she did not have to deal with the surface anymore, Eirin, knowing the tenacity the fury had with anything Chang'e-related and the Slayer curious of the intentions the Seraphim that bestowed upon the armour and strength that he became iconic for.

Suddenly, two gusts of wind blew past them as two horned women sped by. Everyone was confused, the resistance forces even more so. Hadn't these strong oni been fearless?

The loud roars from in front of them answered why.

The Cyberdemon had brought company. And company came in the form of a gigantic brain attached to a mechanical construct with eight robotic legs. A rotating laser-gatling gun and a rocket launcher on its underside and the tragic deformed body of the once-friendly feline pet of the Komeijis hung limply off the side of the brain like a tumour. The brain itself had an ugly face with glaring red eyes set for the armoured man.

"Slayer! Let's finish this!", it growled.

Yukari dropped all pretence of calm and scowled. So, Olivia finally decided to set foot into the battlefield. Whoever it was must have been real hasty in ordering her to do so. The Slayer said nothing but the quick switch to his BFG spoke volumes of his rage. Eirin, seeing what became of Orin, glared at the disgusting creature with tear-soaked eyes.

Not a word was said between them but the message was clear and Kaguya and Junko heard it very well.

Rip and tear. Until it was done.


End file.
